Holiday Display Task Force

[Shammu]

Holiday Display Task Force
NOVEMBER 08, 2007

GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

GLENN: I wanted to tell you what we have allowed to fester, the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, why there are for foot baths and they're against the Baby Jesus?

Why a university publicly funded can put foot baths for Muslims in their bathrooms, why they are for foot baths in airports funded with federal dollars, they'll fight for that. But Baby Jesus, you can't have Baby Jesus. What? Are you kidding me? Can you imagine if I said, "hey I need the thing with the holy water so I can cross myself because I'm a Catholic? "Can you imagine? The ACLU would be all over it.

What is the real goal? It never makes sense. The ACLU is founded in 1920. The founding director was a guy named Roger Baldwin, he founded the ACLU in 1920. 15 years later, in his college reunion yearbook, Baldwin said and I quote from his yearbook. "I have continued directing the unpopular fight for the rights of education as director of the American Civil Liberties Union I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." End quote. This is 15 years after he founded the ACLU. This guy has never made any bones about it.

He founded it in 1920. He was active until 1981. He wrote two books. One "Letters from the Soviet Prisons" and "Liberty Under the Soviets." This is their founding father. In "Letters from Soviet Prisons" Baldwin says "The Russian revolution was, quote, the greatest and most daring experiment yet undertaken to recreate society in terms of human values of incalculable value to the development of the human world."

Now I want you to listen to this. And I'm going to tie the next phrase. You can say that's all ancient history, Glenn, he wrote those books in the '70s. Uh huh. I'm going to tie this next phrase to something, if you watch or listen to this program, you heard it you heard it before. And it was in something else we were all trying to figure out.

In his book "Liberty Under the Soviets," Baldwin defended the Soviet oppression. Still, I want you to see if you recognize this. Defending the Soviet oppression, he said "Repression in the western democracies are a violation of professed constitutional liberties and I condemn them. Such repressions in the Soviet Union are weapons of a struggle in the transition period to socialism."

Do you recognize it? Dan or Stu? Does it sound familiar to you? Are you like why do I know that?

DAN: I think I know it. I think I know it.

GLENN: Tell me.

DAN: The transition period. That's what jumped out at me.

GLENN: No. It's very good. Very good.

STU: I was thinking of the lawyer recently.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: What's her name?

GLENN: Lynn Stewart. Yes! She just was this is the woman who was defending the terrorists. She was at NYU, was it NYU it wasn't NYU. I can't remember. It was one of the they're all the same. It was at the Soviet university here on the island of Manhattan. And they had her for ethics. And she condemned the United States and its tactics.

However, with the Soviet Union, when the Soviet Union used thuggish tactics, it was in the name of the people. But she says it's wrong. Gitmo. What we're doing over in the Middle East is wrong. That was for the university, wasn't it? It's the same thing. By the way, who defended her? Who's all up in arms of poor little Lynn Stewart? My goodness, it's weird. Wouldn't be ACLU, would it?

END TRANSCRIPT

Holiday Display Task Force

[Shammu]

Task force guidelines are good start - Fort Collins
Council should foster inclusion in celebration, education

The Holiday Display Task Force recommendations should be a starting point, rather than an end, to what eventually will become city policy.

Tuesday, the 15-member task force offered a 10-page document that includes suggestions such as using the Fort Collins Museum as the focal point for an educational and multicultural display for the winter season; and decorating city buildings with white lights, secular winter symbols and unadorned garlands of greenery. The task force document centers on education and acknowledging the winter season, rather than particular holidays.
   
The issue came to the fore in 2005 and again in 2006, when a local rabbi asked the city to include a menorah at the same site where a Christmas tree is lighted each year on city property. The rabbi did not ask that both symbols be removed; rather, he sought the inclusion of a menorah. Both the menorah and Christmas tree are considered secular symbols, according to the Supreme Court. Citing lack of time to make a decision, the city rejected the request last year but decided to create a task force that addressed holiday displays for 2008 and beyond.

City Council is expected to consider the recommendations Nov. 20. As elected officials, they will have to determine if this task force’s findings are reflective of this community. The best approach is to consider this a base from which to work, not a completed piece. Public comment must be given weight here.

We urge City Council to take these recommendations further by ensuring that its policy foster an atmosphere where all cultures, traditions and religions are welcome to share and celebrate, as well as educate. Our melting pot should not become the blandest soup in the world, thinned to the point it doesn’t include anyone. Fort Collins’ policy should be one that opens the door to inclusiveness. As such, cultural groups in town should work closely with museum staff to place physical displays at the museum that celebrate a variety of winter holidays and traditions.

In the meantime, some confusion exists because the beloved Old Town Square is not included in city policy. That property is regulated by the Downtown Development Authority, which develops its own policies regarding displays and decorations. That entity faces the difficult task of balancing its commercial base with a community’s values.

Task force guidelines are good start

[Shammu]

Task force: Only white lights for holidays
Group recommends axing Christmas trees in attempt to be culturally inclusive
BY KELLI LACKETT

If the city's Holiday Display Task Force has its wish, city staff will not put up Christmas trees outside city buildings or on city property beginning in 2008.

Instead, the group will recommend the city's outdoor displays include white lights, secular winter symbols not associated with any particular holiday - such as snowflakes and icicles - and unadorned swaths of greenery.

The task force, made up of members from religious communities, businesses and community organizations, has been meeting for two months to review the city's existing holiday display policy.

City Council will vote on the task force's recommendations Nov. 20.

At the task force's final meeting Wednesday, members hammered out language to include in the final draft of the recommendation, which has not yet been released to the public.

"As far as I'm concerned, the group ended up in a very fair place in which primarily secular symbols will be used on city property," said task force member Saul Hopper.

The current holiday display policy was adopted in 2006 in response to a controversy over a rabbi's request to display a menorah in the city's holiday display at Oak Street Plaza.

The policy states that outdoor displays on city property shall consist of any combination of white or colored lights, wreaths, garlands or other foliage. In past years, the city's display at Oak Street Plaza has included a Christmas tree with white lights.

Though the recommendation's language does not address Christmas trees by name, the consensus among task force members was that Christmas trees would not fall within its recommendations, said Seth Anthony, spokesman for the task force.

"Some symbols, even though the Supreme Court has declared that in many contexts they are secular symbols, often still send a message to some members of the community that they and their traditions are not values and not wanted. We don't want to send that message," Anthony said.

But the Fort Collins museum's display of white lights in trees on its grounds - including an evergreen tree lighted as part of the Downtown Business Association's Community Holiday Tree lighting and Carolfest, could continue under the new recommendation, he said.

The task force also will recommend that the Fort Collins Museum develop a multicultural display of religious and cultural symbols or objects associated with a variety of winter holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Diwali. Such a display could include such objects as a crèche with a star overhead, a menorah or a Kwanzaa kenora, to name a few.

The final decision for what is included in the display, which will likely be outdoors beginning in 2008, would rest with museum staff, Anthony said.

Because the Downtown Development Authority owns Old Town Square, any holiday display policies approved by council would not apply there.

"I expect criticism from people who feel like we are taking Christmas away. And I expect we will get criticism from people who think educational display endorses religions," Anthony said. "(But) to the extent we can, recognizing that offending no one will be impossible, we want to be inclusive."

Task force: Only white lights for holidays

[HisDaughter]

Ya know, it's totally amazing isn't it?  CHRISTmas is a CHRISTian holiday and celebration, but they all want to take CHRIST out of it.  Why don't they just ban Christmas altogether?
No Christmas, no shopping, no attending Christmas pagents or concerts.
Just what "holiday" do they think they are celebrating?

 "Here's your holiday present dear but I have no idea why I'm giving it to you.  The only thing I know is it's NOT because of Chrismas because there IS NO CHRISTMAS!"

 "Here ya go boss.  Just a little holiday present for you.  What?  Why am I giving it to you?  Well I don't know.  Because it's a holiday I guess.  Don't exactly know what holiday, just that it's NOT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE THERE IS NO CHRISTMAS."

"Daddy?  Why do we give each other presents in the middle of winter?"
"Well, I don't really know son.  Because we are celebrating a holiday."
"What holiday, Daddy?"
"I'm not sure.  The only thing I know, is IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE THERE IS NO CHRISTMAS."