In fact I have heard him on the radio often, and believe he is a good and honorable man.
But nothing can change the fact that this incident has been spun twenty ways from Tuesday. For instance for anyone to call the folks at the airport "cowards", and to imply that for some reason this is all their fault.
And to hear the type of statement that "we just wanted to add light to the season..." seems like even more spin. If the Rabbi had offered along with his "suggestion" about the menorah to give JUST ONE SINGLE POOR CHRISTIAN FAMILY A TREE, then I might believe him.
But this is more of the "My way or no way" philosophy that we see much too often in our society.
And it's sad. It's sad because I can imagine there will be a little less light in the eyes of children going through the airport this year. It's sad because some folks might be going back for a family reunion that hasn't happened for years, and I think without the trees there, they have in some sense been deprived of something.
Instead, it will be just another day of frustration, fighting your way through the ticket lines, the security, the screaming kids, the lost luggage...
But not a season of hope and foregiveness.
Not Christmas.
"And to hear the type of statement that "we just wanted to add light to the season..." seems like even more spin. If the Rabbi had offered along with his "suggestion" about the menorah to give JUST ONE SINGLE POOR CHRISTIAN FAMILY A TREE, then I might believe him."
You are gonna have to debate that one with TaraP on this thread who is convinced that a Christmas Tree is a "secular symbol."