Posted on 12/15/2006 12:07:41 PM PST by meg88
By Dan Whitcomb | December 14, 2006
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen was "stunned" to learn that a U.S. high school choir had been ordered to stop singing Christmas carols at a holiday show because she is half-Jewish, her mother said on Thursday.
Article Tools Printer friendly E-mail to a friend Other sports RSS feed Available RSS feeds Most e-mailed Share on Facebook Save this article powered by Del.icio.us More: Sports section | Latest sports news | Globe front page | Boston.com Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts A city official accompanied by a police officer caused a stir by silencing the carols on Tuesday night as Cohen signed autographs after a performance in Riverside, California.
Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge has since apologized to the student choir, the Rubidoux High School Madrigals.
To some, the incident appeared an example of excessive political correctness in the United States over the celebration of Christmas -- which some conservative commentators have characterized as a "war on Christmas.'
Cohen, who is half-Christian and "celebrates everything" during the holidays, learned only through news reports that the choir had been cut off on her account, the 22-year-old skater's mother and manager said.
"Sasha was stunned. We both thought the voices were just lovely, they were doing such a wonderful job," Galina Cohen told Reuters. "Christmas carols are part of celebrating the holiday season."
The Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper reported that the Madrigals had just launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" when a city special-events employee told them to stop singing.
Cohen's mother said the 2006 Olympic silver medalist and U.S. National Champion had taken part in Christmas tree lighting ceremonies at New York's Rockefeller Center and in California.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I do not really know how someone can be "half Christian."
I wonder how she managed to dye her roots that dark color?
It was a lone PC city worker that decided she was going to to be 'tolerant' and silence any reference to Christmas.
Thank you. The rules are very importment... Unless we're discussing Hillary or Janet Reno, in which case the rules should be disregarded.
Christianity is like pregnancy. You either are or not. There is no little bit. Or in this case half.
The only half in this article is the author. Half-Witted.
Olympic skater AND Borat? Is there ANYTHING this guy cannot do?
Sasha's parents (or grandparents) were immigrants from Russia. So, no wonder that she's surprised that Stalinist-style oppression of religion took place in CA.
Or Helen Thomas . . . er, "She Who Must Not Be Named".
The local Riverside columnist, name of Dan Bernstein, wrote a pretty funny column about this for today's Riverside Press Enterprise.
What roots? I don't remember seeing any roots. I guess I was distracted by something else in the picture :-)
What a nice pair of . . . skates!
How does one become half-Christian?
What the heck is a "half-Christian"???
Washingon reporters who read Purpose Driven Life and then march with NOW?
one and a half as in teaspoons?
ROTFLMAO!!!
Well, once I saw a soviet internal passport on the 5th line ["nationality", or rather, "ethnicity"] of which it was written: "half-Jew". From which it could be seen that the word usages vary, and the reporter might have been a bit out of phase.
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