Santa Ban?

thebutcher

My old county. By the way, the same council had a sham town hearing that they actually rigged. We were arguing the council decision to ban gun shows and it was going well. Then this prop in the back says that if they ban gun shows he'll shoot everybody. This guy was a planted actor, no doubt. All of a sudden, every member throws his/her hands up and says, well, I guess it really is dangerous. Banned.There are rumors that Santa Claus may show up anyway. Possibly several Santas. On motorcycles. They may be angry."If the prevailing tone of the more than 1,000 e-mails received at Kensington's town office in the past two days is any indication, the Santas who come to the 1,800-resident town's tree-lighting ceremony on Sunday will not be bearing gifts or good cheer."Hey jerk-of-a-mayor," reads one e-mail. "Go live in Berkeley [Calif.] with all the other losers."The anger stems from a decision last month by the Town Council to keep Santa Claus out of the Montgomery County town's annual tree-lighting ceremony. The complaints, from people all over the country and beyond, criticize the town for what one e-mail calls "over-regulating.""Has this become the People's Republic of Kensington?" asked someone from Scottsdale, Ariz.On Oct. 29, Kensington's four-member elected Town Council unanimously approved a plan to alter the town's annual tree-lighting ceremony because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Instead of Christmas carols and red and green lights, they would have what one town flier calls a "celebration of the American spirit through lights and music," with patriotic songs and red, white and blue lights.The council also decided that Santa Claus would not be included in the program, after two residents suggested at the meeting that Santa did not fit in a patriotic celebration.After the decision, there were some complaints, with a few letters to the editor of a local newspaper. But for more than three weeks, town leaders say, the change was generally well received.Then word got out in the media this week that Kensington had instituted a "Santa ban," as one headline put it. The report circulated on Internet sites, and from there, on talk radio and television news broadcasts across the country.In many reports, Kensington's "Santa ban" was linked to the recent unsuccessful attempt by the Montgomery County Council to regulate smoking in private homes, as another example of what some perceive as heavy-handed government action.The e-mails started pouring in -- from Oregon, Texas, Maine. The town's secretary, Shirley Watson, said she received 839 calls, most to complain, one day this week. At least one person threatened that Santa would show up Sunday, invited or not."This has just snowballed all out of shape," said Kensington Mayor Lynn Raufaste. "Somebody told me they saw it on CNN, and I said, 'Jeez, we've ousted the Taliban!' "Karen Libman, one of the two people who raised the Santa question at the Oct. 29 meeting, said that she has "nothing against Santa" but that Santa does not fit in a secular celebration.The content of the town's holiday tree-lighting ceremony has been a sticking point for a couple of years. Libman and other Jewish residents have pushed for the town to include a Hanukah menorah in the display. The town settled on a secular celebration this year partly as a solution.Disputes about government-sponsored holiday displays "come up almost every year in one context or another," said Arthur Spitzer, area legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which holds the view that government should refrain from all forms of religious displays."I doubt that a court would tell Kensington they could not have Santa Claus," Spitzer said. --- Washington Post

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The definition of an "expert":An "X" is an unknown quantity and a "spurt" is a drip under pressure.