So the Christmas trees are back on display at SEATAC.
SEATAC, Wash. -- The Christmas trees are back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Maintenance staff worked overnight to restore the 14 plastic trees that had been removed during the weekend because of a rabbi's threat to sue over the lack of a menorah in the airport's holiday decor.
Airport managers believed that if they allowed the addition of an 8-foot-tall menorah to the display, as Seattle Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky had requested, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures. Airport workers didn't have time to do that during the busy travel season, Airport Director Mark Reis said.
The rabbi "never asked us to remove the trees; it was the port's decision based on what we knew at the time," Patricia Davis, president of the Port of Seattle commission, said in a statement late Monday.
However, port officials learned on Monday that Bogomilsky's organization would not file a lawsuit over this year's display, Davis said.
"A key element in moving forward will be to work with the rabbi and other members of the community to develop a plan for next year's holiday decorations at the airport," the port statement said.
...The rabbi offered to give the port an electric menorah to display, said his lawyer, Harvey Grad.
"We are not going to be the instrument by which the port holds Christmas hostage," Grad said. He said the rabbi had received "all kinds of calls and e-mails," many of them "odious," over the issue.
Grad said the rabbi never sought removal of the trees, only addition of the menorah.
Rabbi Bogomilsky shouldn't be criticized for holding Christmas hostage.
He didn't want the decorations ripped from the airport.
It's horrible that he was subjected to hate mail and calls.
The threat of a lawsuit by Bogomilsky is probably what prompted the rash reaction by airport staff, but if he didn't throw that possibility out there, his request for a menorah display most likely would have been dismissed.
What a mess!
All this uproar and for what?
Secularists and the lib elite are the ones trying to hold Christmas hostage, not Bogomilsky.
I think it's important to remember that Christmas isn't a tree or a carol.
The best expression of Christmas is living out the message of Christ.
We can battle over nativity scenes on public land or the inclusion of Christmas carols in public school concerts.
I understand that it's frustrating when radical secularists obstruct the free expression of religion and infringe on the civil rights of others. I don't like it.
However, it's important to realize that those scrooges have no control over what's in one's heart.
They can have trees removed and purge the public square of religious symbols, but they can't keep anyone from bringing joy and hope to others in the name of Christ.
When all is said and done, isn't that what really matters?
7 comments:
I completely agree: don't demonize the rabbi for wanting his faith co-expressed with Christianity! It was the idiots who run Sea-Tac that screwed it all up.
FWIW, I have no problem with a menorah side-by-side with a creche, tree, etc,..etc,...
It's easy to blame the airport, but if the rabbi hadn't brought the lawyers in this wouldn't have happened.
When the lawyers come its all over.....Which is ridiculous in its own right.
Watch for the ACLU to come in next and try to force another flip flop on the matter.
There is a great article about this from Chabad at http://www.chabad.org/455712
It's a Catch-22 to call in the lawyers.
If the Rabbi didn't get a lawyer, his request would have gone straight in the circular file.
I suspect it was the threat of a lawsuit that caused the airport officials to act so hastily.
I agree with you Mary on not demonizing the rabbi. He didn't expect the airport to react by removing the trees.
I suspect it was the threat of a lawsuit that caused the airport officials to act so hastily.
My understanding is that the airport was afraid if they allowed the menorah, then they'd have every other religious group come a knockin'.
Tammy Bruce expressed it most eloquently, when she mentioned about the narcissism, and that you don't need to see yourself expressed in every little thing.
It's also been pointed out that the menorah is more a religious symbol than is the Christmas tree. Both are religious symbols, but the tree is more secularized, coming out of pagan tradition, and embraced by a more mainstream public.
The Rabbi was wrong to demand the inclusion of the menorah. The menorah is a religious symbol. The Christmas tree isn't.
If the airport had capitulated and placed menorahs in the airport, the ACLU would have sued over the myth of separation of church and state. They can't sue over the placing of non-religious symbols.
Every year it's the same tug of war when it comes to Christmas and expressions of faith.
I'm so sick of this lame seasonal song and dance.
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