Hastert Plays Politics With Holidays

[Jedster]

I just read on the Drudge Report that Speaker Dennis Hastert is fighting to get the annual Capitol Holiday Tree renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree.

I am not really interested in having a debate about church and state. If the tree was already called the Christmas tree I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it.

But the very act of renaming it to the Christmas Tree suggests that everybody who isn't Christian or who doesn't celeberate christmas should not be able to enjoy the tree. And I really find that very offensive. It's a very exclusionary act, designed to win a few votes.

Honestly, it's got me pissed off. I know it's just symbolism, but it it's symbolism that says F*-you to anybody in this country who isn't Christian. And that kind of symbolism certainly offends my sense of what it means to be an American. Especially when he's clearly doing it for partisan political gain.

[TomCollins]

Do you think it always has been a Holiday Tree?

Come on, we all know what it is.

It's like calling a Menorah a Holiday Candle Holder.

[BillD]

I am not a Christian.

The tree (if they have it) should be called a Christmas Tree. That's what it is. That's what it represents. It doesn't represent any holiday that I celebrate.

I would be offended if a Menorah display were called an 8-branched cadelabra. It's a Menorah. A decorated cut tree in December is a Christmas Tree.

If your going to display them, at least call them by their correct names.

[cardcounter0]

I am glad that Hastert is using the power of his position to focus on what to call a friggin' tree.
[img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

But ignoring the pertinent and important trees. ahem.

I dont know, I just think that you should allow people to call it whatever the [censored] they wanna call it. Its a goddamn tree.

pc people should all be "invited" for a "vacation" on to an island, and summarily .. okay well I cant think of a pc way to say it, so "executed".

[ rant ] black people are black. they are not african american, and Im not caucasion. Im a tan, american. jeeeeeesus. arabic people who are stopped before getting on a flight arent part of random security measures, they are stopped because they look middle eastern. Just [censored] admit it, get on with your lives, and stop all the [censored] [censored].

what about caucasian african americans my friend was born in south africa does that count

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
I am not really interested in having a debate about church and state. If the tree was already called the Christmas tree I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it.

[/ QUOTE ]
It was originally called the Christmas tree.

[ QUOTE ]
But the very act of renaming it to the Christmas Tree suggests that everybody who isn't Christian or who doesn't celeberate christmas should not be able to enjoy the tree. And I really find that very offensive. It's a very exclusionary act, designed to win a few votes.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're too easily offended. Will you sue for millions in damages to your mental health too? Get over it.

[MelchyBeau]

The "christmas" tree comes from a pagan holiday.

Anyway, is this something that Hastert should be spending alot of time on? I imagine there are a few other issues that might be slightly more important than a f'ing tree.

Its like taking care of a splinter in a guys hand while he is losing his other arm.

Melch

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, is this something that Hastert should be spending alot of time on?

[/ QUOTE ]
The blurb about it that I saw on Brit Hume was that he actually waited a long time to do it, so all the brochures and refrences will still call it the Holiday Tree.

nice one jedster, I almost thought you were serious.