Saturday, December 06, 2008

Who doesn't like Christmas?

The annual battle for Christmas has begun early this year, with the announcement that the internationally known fireworks company, Grucci, has pulled out of an annual Christmas event on Long Island in protest against the town of Patchogue’s decision to break with its 15-year tradition of holding a Christmas Boat Parade and instead to rename the event the Patchogue Holiday Boat Parade.

“Christmas is the only holiday that is singled out by these authoritarians. They do not object to Jewish or Muslim holidays, nor do they object to holidays like Martin Luther King Day. And they relish Kwanzaa celebrations. But when it comes to Christmas, they quickly become censors."

For as long as anyone can remember, Christmas trees adorned with lights and ornaments have greeted holiday season visitors to UNC Chapel Hill's two main libraries.

Not this year.

The trees, which have stood in the lobby areas of Wilson and Davis libraries each December, were kept in storage this year at the behest of Sarah Michalak, the associate provost for university libraries. Michalak's decision followed several years of queries and complaints from library employees and patrons bothered by the Christian display, Michalak said this week.

Some good news on this front is the story of JoEllen Murphy who singlehandly started a website and raised $40,000 to counter the anti-God advertising on the Washington, DC Metro buses. Also Matthew at Creative Minority Report found a hilarious Youtube video promoting shopping from catalogues which actually use the words "Merry Christmas" in their advertising.

1 comment:

Juan said...

Donations to the I Believe Too campaign can be made at http://www.ibelievetoo.org.