Trees Back Up!

Christmas trees are going back up at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.  A backlash of criticism from across the country has caused airport officials to reverse a decision over the weekend to remove the trees due to threats of a lawsuit from a rabbi who wanted a menorah put up with the trees.  What’s interesting is all sides are in “damage control” mode this morning as the trees are being put back up.  For the airport, a new spokesperson was apparently appointed as Pat Davis announced they were going back up.  Davis was quick to mention that once the trees were down, the rabbi making the threats backed off and:

“Given that, the holiday trees will be replaced as quickly as possible,” he said.
Davis added that the rabbi “never asked us to remove the trees; it was the port’s decision based on what we knew at the time.”

Hmmm.  Interesting words.  Certainly the rabbi never did ask for the trees to be taken down but his threats did bring about the airport’s decision.  What the port (airport authority) knew at the time was that Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky had threatened to sue if he was not allowed to display an eight foot electric menorah alongside the trees.  Somebody with the airport decided to have the trees removed in the early morning hours on Saturday so as to keep down questions.  What happened though was a backlash of criticism including some from airline employees who brought their own trees to work as a response.  Talk radio also got in the discussion.  A local station near me devoted nearly an hour to the situation last night.

In my earlier article, I pointed to a comment made by the rabbi’s attorney, Harvey Grad, who said he hoped that people would look at his client and the Jewish community as the Grinch.  Well, I don’t believe the Jewish community should have even been mentioned but I guess he felt he needed to include others to protect his client.  Apparently, the attorney’s fears were realized as he was quoted today as saying:

The rabbi had received “all kinds of calls and emails,” many of them
“odious,” Grad said, adding he was “trying to figure out how this is
consistent with the spirit of Christmas.”

Well, I do agree it’s not in the spirit of Christmas but neither is hiring an attorney and threatening to sue over a pagan holiday symbol being displayed like a tree.  In the large scope of things, that’s what this was.  An argument to have a religious symbol of another holiday sitting next to one that has no religious significance.  As a Christian, I would love to see nativity scenes displayed but alas, they are not nearly as common as in years gone by.  That issue is another article for another time but as for this flap, there was simply no reason for any of this to transpire.  The rabbi’s lawsuit could not have held up in court given the symbolism tied to the tree.  As for “odious” behavior, Grad should have had enough common sense to tell the rabbi not to threaten a lawsuit and let the issue be.  All parties here are ignorant of what was apparent from the beginning and for that, all of them should be chided for playing political football with something as simple as a Christmas Tree.

I thank God common sense prevailed here despite the silliness of how it all came about.

Information for this article came from the story presented at CNN.com.