FReeper Million Santa March saves the day for Kensington Town, Montgomery County, Maryland!

Thanks for the post. The true irony is that the historical "St. Nicholas" was a beloved figure who helped the poor sort of like Robin Hood. What we might tend to call a true "bleeding heart." "Santa" - the popular semi-secularized figure of merriment and gifts - is a mythological symbol which has actually brought Americans of different denominations together at Christmas, organized around a common, less sectarian, destratified theme. It seems beyond belief that someone could find in "Christmas" something to be offended by. This is the height of mean-spirited, small-minded, paranoia, and xenophobia. Most Americans are Christians. People who don't like that should explore some of the non-Christian nations and cultures at close range. Like, say, Tora Bora, Afghanistan. That's what Christ came to deliver us from. I just find these Scrooges & Grinches hard to understand... He's a symbol for God's sake, like the reindeer, elves, holly, mistletoe, and the pine and fir trees. Besides being stupid and vulgar, the anti-Christmas mafiosi are rude, fussy, and annoying.

The whole business of thinking that a Santa on display is an "establishment" of religion displays an ignorance of history. The "establishment" that the Constitution refers to had to do with state churches (specific Christian denominations - Anglican, Catholic, Puritan, etc.) requiring active membership in that denomination to be a legal citizen, have voting rights, be able to sit in parliament, go to Oxford and Cambridge, etc., as had happened in England in prior experience. The Constitution forbids "CONGRESS" from passing a law establishing one Christian denomination as the official legally required religion. A Santa on a town square doesn't do that. If the president (G.W.) said, "I am a Christian and I would like everyone to become a Christian," that doesn't establish a state religion required of all Americans. If he puts a Bible on his desk or a cross or a pciture of Jesus on the wall of his office, that doesn't establish a federal governmental religion. These people need to learn how to read and study OUR history. The Constitution did not grant a right to be protected from being offended by the display of Christian symbols and culture in the streets of North America. This notion is just utterly ridiculous.

I know that the lights on the white pine in my front yard represent the Holy Spirit. And the tree...the Tree of Life in Paradise and the hope of Redemption. Last time I checked it was a Jewish rabbi from Nazareth who preached on those universal themes of the human spirit.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and not question your motives nor presume the tone or tenor of your questions in post # 266. Regardless, quite frankly, since Mr. White actions had nothing to do with me, the FReepers or TRT members present at that particular event, the attempts by tgslTakoma and certain others to tie the TRT or FReepers to him have been quite disingenuous, misleading and downright FALSE.

If, by the implications of your specific line of questioning of me above, you have been led to believe otherwise, then I can truthfully state that you have been lied to, both by one or two posters on this thread, and possibly by those who seek to discredit me, the FReepers and the TRT.

Given that this FReep was one of the most successful ones done in the year 2001, it does not surprise me that there were even some "fellow FReepers" who maliciously sought to bitch and nitpick HERE about the actions of NON-FReepers THERE. This thinly veiled attempt to negatively relate the 12/2/01 actions of Mr. White to some of us who served on the front lines during the White House and VP FReeps of the 2000 elections and it's aftermath was not appreciated by me nor several of the other grassroots conservatives I recruited for the Kensington Santa FReep.

One final note, several other very active FReepers and myself are very, very disappointed at the lack of respect for our local laws, lawful due process and the Constitution of the United States that certain other FReepers have demonstrated by their support of the acts of violence against Mr. White that occurred that day. IMHO, anyone who claims to be an American "conservative" should respect the rights of even those with whom they may disagree, no matter how offensive or not those others' opinions may actually be. To do any less would be un-American.

Specific answers to your two "specific questions" above:

1. No.

2. No.

Brief - to the point - additional data to help alleviate possible misinterpretations of my answers above:

1. Mr. White does not need an invitation from me, nor anyone else, to show up at a nationally publicized event. If anyone says or insinuates otherwise, they are LIARS.

2. There were NEVER any specific "details of the plans of the TRT, the FReep, or yourself (myself)" for the Santa FReep, other than the general organization threads I had publicly posted on FreeRepublic.com during the week leading up to this event. Mr. White knows how to surf the web quite well. Regardless, since we (some D.C. Chapter FReepers and TRT members) know him, I did ask him to disassociate any actions he does on his own, from those of the FReepers and the TRT. It is a shame that katya and tgslTakoma especially, tried to disingenuously establish a false and misleading link between myself, the TRT, the FReepers, and Mr. White's actions at this particular event. But, then again, in the long run, that says more about their own characters than it does about any sanctimonious jihad they may have against the TRT, fellow FReepers or Mr. White, for that matter.

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