County Executive orders "religion-neutral" Christmas (and blames 9/11 Attack)

King County Executive ^ | 11/30/01 | Ron Sims, King County Executive

[ppaul]

TO: KC Global Announcement to All King County Employees

FM: Ron Sims, King County Executive

RE: Holiday Celebrations

With the post September 11 tragedy climate and the religious holidays starting, we at King County want to ensure that any upcoming holiday celebration at the workplace is held in a respectful, inclusive, and sensitive manner that does not favor one religion over another. Particularly in public areas, this means that any holiday recognition or celebration should be religion-neutral.

Examples of religion-neutral practices include: naming the celebration(s) "Holiday Celebration" or "Winter Celebration;"

using general greetings such as "Happy Holidays" or "Holiday Greetings;"

using decorations that are commonplace - poinsettias, evergreen boughs, lights - but not using religious symbols nor practices; and

obtaining the concurrence of all affected employees prior to holding a holiday social and/or food gathering. Care should be taken that employees who do not concur with holding a gathering are protected from retaliation.

Cultural information sharing about various religious holidays in the name of diversity is allowable when it is done in the context of employee education and is inclusive of various religious celebrations such as Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, etc.

I encourage you to contact Maria Batayola, at (206) 263-7380, should you have any questions and/or comments.

cc: Robert S. Derrick, Director, Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM)

Maria Batayola, Manager, Diversity Management Division, OHRM

King County Executive, RON SIMS

:

[tomakaze]

RE:WHAT HAPPENED TO KWANZAA?

Somebody ganked it.
word.

[sheik yerbouty]

People should go all out in NYC on their Christmas and Chanukah displays. Let our homegrown pc taliban gnash their teeth to the nubs!

[Right_Wing_Mole_In_Seattle]

All the women I know who liked Peter (like my wife), hated him at first, but I guess he kind of grew on them after a while.

I liked him because Wilbur/Medved/Carlson are all a lot alike. He was a good change from that.

[Right_Wing_Mole_In_Seattle]

Thanks!!

[anniegetyourgun]

#114 - there you go trying to inject logic again....tsk, tsk...

[anniegetyourgun]

Well, I'm glad you liked him. I found his program to be much ado about nothing. Beyond that, was intellectually the weakest link on the station.

[Irish Queen]

Last January I retired after teaching for thirty-two years. Schools both public and private encourage the establishment of collective thought that I call the Church of Political Correctitude. Several years ago I playfully announced that I was designing a new "Holiday" greeting card. I made a dummy card to show my teaching colleague. When I showed it to people who where N.P.C. (not politically correct) they howled. When I showed it to people who where E.P.C. (exquisitely politically correct)they praised its celebration of diversity. Now I'll describe that infamous greeting card. It has a Wal-Mart happy face on the outside. The happy face was wearing a peace sign necklace, a Kwanza headband and waving a rainbow pennant. Inside was the cheery greetings "Have a pleasant winter festival". The art teacher especially appreciated my efforts. The next year she created her own greeting card using my design and words. That poor lady actually thought my parody was for real.

[Caipirabob]

Keep in mind that the largest influx of new Americans is coming from chiefly Catholic/Christian nations in Central and South America. These people have a tendency to get just as PO'd as we "caucasians" do at those who would silence our most holy of holidays. These losers who want to silence us are being overwhelmed at this very moment and are just too darn slow to figure it out.

So for the 99% of you out there, not the .04%, not the .02%....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!,

FELIZ NAVIDAD

and FELIZ NATAL y'all!

[goldstategop]

I hereby nominate Montgomery & King Counties for the Bonehead Liberal Counties Of The Year Award.

Who here wants to second this nomination? ;-)

[Penny1]

How did I know, before I even looked, that this was King County...

Time to move to Idaho or something, I guess....

-penny

[rockfish59]

religion neutral

anyone got that gear on your transmissions??
the socialists should all be tarred and feathered (in a sensitive and inclusive way, tho')

[dennisw]

What unmitigated bs! This Maria Batayola, Manager, Diversity Management Division, OHRM is strictly dead weight and seems to have nothing to do but stir up mischief.

[rockfish59]

i'm not homeless, but i can always use a few extra bucks!!

oh, i forgot george's song 'the taxman'....

'one for you, 19 for me'! ..................................................................................have a nice day!

[Mr. Mulliner]

Yep, like you I was guessing it was Ron Sims behind this headline.

For about 4 months, I was interned hired by King County in the Mental Health Division and went through culture shock learning how these people think. In that division, most people think this way anyway. It was about 25% gay and lesbian, usually flaunting it with no fear of reprisal and always in line for advancements to "promote diversity."

[ShandaLear]

This has already been made public here. Sims is an ass.

[jmp702]

The King of King County has spoken, and the subjects will surely obey the king, correct?

[LasVegasMac]

Good words!

Veins start popping out when I think of someone telling me I am no longer allowed to say....

Merry Christmas.

LVM

[j_tull]

Very nice!

[j_tull]

I hope you'll give us a chance to get out first!