What kind of cranks are “offended” by public displays of birthday celebrations?
Oh, the academic betters kind.
CHAPEL HILL 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.
If these cranks aren’t loudly complaining in restaurants about being offended by the birthday cake on the next table, we can safely chalk this up to another lesson in Cultural Tolerance(tm) by Judea-Christophobic Leftists.
Comment by Jeffersonian on 12/5 @ 7:51 pm #
They aren’t really offended, Darleen, they just like the feeling they get from pushing others around.
Comment by Dan Collins on 12/5 @ 7:53 pm #
Maybe they could replace it with some Mapplethorpe stuff?
Comment by Darleen on 12/5 @ 7:54 pm #
Jeffersonian
they just like the feeling they get from pushing others around.
Christmas is not about them so how dare others enjoy themselves.
Comment by DarthRove on 12/5 @ 7:57 pm #
The fact that the complaints weren’t answered with, “Shut the fuck up, you intolerant quimsnarfer” speaks volumes for the cowardice of modern library scientists.
Comment by Darleen on 12/5 @ 7:59 pm #
DarthRove
Christmas trees that “offend”? Get ‘em out, pronto.
Children viewing p0rn on the library ‘puters? Well, that’s ok.
Comment by thor on 12/5 @ 8:02 pm #
Yay, porn!
Comment by N. O'Brain on 12/5 @ 8:16 pm #
I’m offended that the trees aren’t on display.
Who do I sue?
Comment by parsnip on 12/5 @ 8:26 pm #
Academia has always been at war with Christmas!
The real question is, why hasn’t some righty cleaned up soliciting donation to fight this battle?
Comment by Carin on 12/5 @ 8:32 pm #
Honestly, those people could kindly take a flying fuck at the moon, and I think we’d all be better off.
Comment by Pablo on 12/5 @ 8:42 pm #
Someone should ask them what they think Martin Luther King Jr. would say about the Christmas thing.
Comment by nikkolai on 12/5 @ 8:44 pm #
Leftiania has always been at war with FreeAmerica.
Comment by Huey on 12/5 @ 8:56 pm #
Some university department needs to apply for a grant to study this.
Are trees phallic or are they more like mother earth fertility symbols? Does the tree feel repression when cut or do they make a willing sacrifice for the communal good?
Besides, how may Douglas Fir trees were there in Bethlehem anyway?
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 9:05 pm #
STFU, parsnip.
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 12/5 @ 9:21 pm #
Besides, how may Douglas Fir trees were there in Bethlehem anyway?
With global warming and all, they’re not there NOW!
Or something.
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 9:23 pm #
I heard a guy prattling on and on and on, on the radio this week about global warming, JohnAnnArbor. Nothing, not even global cooling, can get in the way of that narrative.
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 12/5 @ 9:32 pm #
I’m guessing I’ll have my own pet mastodon before that fad will run its course.
Comment by parsnip on 12/5 @ 9:35 pm #
Merry Winter Solstice to you too, JD.
May Gaia cradle you in her arms.
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 9:42 pm #
What a tool.
Comment by happyfeet on 12/5 @ 9:44 pm #
that’s like at least two weeks away, the solstice. The 21st. I know cause a client told me. I asked her what it meant so she would talk talk talk her hippie lore while my software stopped hanging.
Comment by happyfeet on 12/5 @ 9:48 pm #
It’s different if you’re in Australia cause of some hippie nuance. Or maybe wiccan. Whatever. I got my smudge stick at the ready and that’s all I can do.
Comment by MAJ (P) John on 12/5 @ 9:52 pm #
hf,
I find that an oak riot baton is better for hippie convincing. At least my riot training has so inferred.
Comment by MAJ (P) John on 12/5 @ 9:52 pm #
But letting her talk was probably the better thing to do…
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 9:53 pm #
Is Mother Gaia heating up or cooling off? Which is it that Man is responsible for. I must know now, so I can repent properly.
Comment by happyfeet on 12/5 @ 10:16 pm #
It was a tactical decision cause I was training her on the software that was hanging and I didn’t want her to know mine did so if hers ever hangs I can just blame it on her network.
For real JD the only mentally healthy answer to your question is who cares. Climate change is about the only change I face with no trepidation whatsoever. I’m big like that.
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 10:19 pm #
happyfeet – Your strength should be emulated. Trepidation will be removed from my day to day existence in your honor.
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 10:38 pm #
I will need to find something to fill the time that I had previously spent trepidating.
Comment by exDemocrat on 12/5 @ 10:45 pm #
It’s Chapel Hole….enough said.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 10:46 pm #
Speaking on authority, as a former resident of Cack-a-lackee, I pretty sure that you’ll find Kwanzaa decorations in many places on campus; and I’m certain that no one will dare raise an objection. Indeed, I’d wager that there are at least some Kwanzaa awareness posters in those same libraries. And, that some of the same hyper ethno-centric folks that posess and display these kwanzaa paraphenalia are among the ones complaining about the Christmas trees.
Believe me, there is assuredly a double standard going on there…
Christmas is a nearly 1700 year old tradition that is shared by Christians of all denominations and is a recognized Federal holiday. Indeed, Islam and Judaism both recognize the person of Jesus. Judaism recognizes Jesus, but only as a misguided Jew that lapsed into messianic heresy, while Islam sees him as merely another prophet. Furthermore, the celebration of the Christmas holiday has taken on increasingly secular overtones; a fact that bothers many religious folks. So while Constantine may have mandated the celebration of Christ’s birth to coincide with the traditional Roman elebration of the winter solstice, this is of negligible consequence since Easter is the most important holy day on the Christian calendar.
On the other hand, An African-American scholar/activist made up Kwanzaa in 1967. He intended it to be the first African-American holiday. His stated goal was to give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than imitate the practice of the dominant society. Kwanzaa is a Pan-African celebration that has its roots in the Black nationalist movement, and began as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and to study African traditions.
Let’s review…
Christmas; began 1700 years ago and was institutionalized as part of the adoption of Christianity by Constantine, and therefore as the predominant religion of the Roman empire. Macroscopically, it is a celebration of the birth of one of the world’s major religious figures.
Kwanzaa; made up 40 years ago by a community organizer as one of the seminal acts in the advancement of identity politics. It is essentially a paean to the romanticized concept of the African Motherland, despite the fact that overall, African society existed as a collection of tribal groups with few geographically deliniated nation states let alone a united Motherland. Macroscopically, it is a politically motivated creation that stressen racial identity and separation from the dominant culture; a societal seperation that had, ironically, been struggled against and had just been recently overturned.
So Christmas is a well established holiday shared by many nations and cultures, and has been a tradition in America since before it’s inception. Kwanzaa is the outgrowth of a militant, antagonistic, ideology; one that stressed Pan-African exceptionalism, and encouraged Blacks to stay culturally separate and distinct from the dominant culture that they had ostensibly been fighting with for full acceptance and real assimilation…
Which one seems like more of an in-your-face contrivance that would inherently encourage it’s adherents to demand they be spared the artifices of the dominant culture?
And, what do you think the reaction would be in Cack-a-lackee if folks on the campus opposed the veneration and celebration of Dr. King’s birthday; on the grounds that as part of his overarching civil rights argument he appealed to the same religiously based Judeo-Christian ideals, that all men are created equal, that were the basis of the founding principles of this nation? Because he was a Christianist!!11!!eleventy!!1!1!!
My guess is that there would certainly be hell to pay in Chapel Hill…
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 10:47 pm #
Speaking on authority, as a former resident of Cack-a-lackee, I pretty sure that you’ll find Kwanzaa decorations in many places on campus; and I’m certain that no one will dare raise an objection. Indeed, I’d wager that there are at least some Kwanzaa awareness posters in those same libraries. And, that some of the same hyper ethno-centric folks that posess and display these kwanzaa paraphenalia are among the ones complaining about the Christmas trees.
Believe me, there is assuredly a double standard going on there…
Christmas is a nearly 1700 year old tradition that is shared by Christians of all denominations and is a recognized Federal holiday. Indeed, Islam and Judaism both recognize the person of Jesus. Judaism recognizes Jesus, but only as a misguided Jew that lapsed into messianic heresy, while Islam sees him as merely another prophet. Furthermore, the celebration of the Christmas holiday has taken on increasingly secular overtones; a fact that bothers many religious folks. So while Constantine may have mandated the celebration of Christ’s birth to coincide with the traditional Roman elebration of the winter solstice, this is of negligible consequence since Easter is the most important holy day on the Christian calendar.
On the other hand, An African-American scholar/activist made up Kwanzaa in 1967. He intended it to be the first African-American holiday. His stated goal was to give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than imitate the practice of the dominant society. Kwanzaa is a Pan-African celebration that has its roots in the Black nationalist movement, and began as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and to study African traditions.
Let’s review…
Christmas; began 1700 years ago and was institutionalized as part of the adoption of Christianity by Constantine, and therefore as the predominant religion of the Roman empire. Macroscopically, it is a celebration of the birth of one of the world’s major religious figures.
Kwanzaa; made up 40 years ago by a community organizer as one of the seminal acts in the advancement of identity politics. It is essentially a paean to the romanticized concept of the African Motherland, despite the fact that overall, African society existed as a collection of tribal groups with few geographically deliniated nation states let alone a united Motherland. Macroscopically, it is a politically motivated creation that stressen racial identity and separation from the dominant culture; a societal seperation that had, ironically, been struggled against and had just been recently overturned.
So Christmas is a well established holiday shared by many nations and cultures, and has been a tradition in America since before it’s inception. Kwanzaa is the outgrowth of a militant, antagonistic, ideology; one that stressed Pan-African exceptionalism, and encouraged Blacks to stay culturally separate and distinct from the dominant culture that they had ostensibly been fighting with for full acceptance and real assimilation…
Which one seems like more of an in-your-face contrivance that would inherently encourage it’s adherents to demand they be spared the artifices of the dominant culture?
And, what do you think the reaction would be in Cack-a-lackee if folks on the campus opposed the veneration and celebration of Dr. King’s birthday; on the grounds that as part of his overarching civil rights argument he appealed to the same religiously based Judeo-Christian ideals, that all men are created equal, that were the basis of the founding principles of this nation? Because he was a Christianist!!11!!eleventy!!1!1!!
My guess is that there would certainly be hell to pay in Chapel Hill…
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/5 @ 10:52 pm #
I pretty sure that you’ll find Kwanzaa decorations in many places on campus; and I’m certain that no one will dare raise an objection.
No bet, my friend.
Comment by parsnip on 12/5 @ 10:53 pm #
Winter Solstice celebrations predate Christianity by thousands of years, Bob.
And yet the Wiccans don’t really mind sharing their Solstice with other, newer religions.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 10:54 pm #
sorry about the double-take y’all; and the stupid all bold initial one…
But, I meant every word I said. And, while I can already hear the breathlessly agog cries of RAAAAAAAAAACIST!, I quietly hold the identity politics high ground here…
You see, I am an appreciable fraction Cherokee by heritage; the only group with over-arching victimhood, absolute moral authority, and the trump suit in the identity politics deck. I could have used it for a free ride through school, and in many ways, through life in our modern society; but chose instead to rely on the fruits of my efforts and leave the scholoarships and set-asides for those in real need…
Still, I’m not above playin’ that ace in the face of all the identity politics card players and race baiters…
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 11:00 pm #
Bob – You do not hold the moral high ground of identity politics unless you are a descendant of a Native American, by way of slaves, and are now disabled, gay, elderly, and female as well.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 11:01 pm #
SBP,
Excellent pull, Bro-and quick too! Although I haven’t been in a few years, I knew that the identity politics holiday had become mainstream in my beloved home-place…
Parsnip,
I acknowledged the conflation of Christmas with the solstice celebration by Constantine. I think the intrinsic difference is that from that time forward the Wiccans have been seriously outnumbered…
Best Wishes
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 11:03 pm #
JD,
I’m sorry, Bro. I didn’t relize that there were all those qualifiers. Go figger, and I thought that bloodline was the only important factor…
I guess that makes me a perpetratin’ poser!
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 11:04 pm #
Bob – And to the Dems, being black trumps all.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/5 @ 11:07 pm #
BTW, that’s perpetratin’ in the hip-hop sense, not the English meaning; I’m showin my diversity, guys!
I ain’t no hater or no perpatrater…
Peace-out…
Comment by B Moe on 12/5 @ 11:37 pm #
I will need to find something to fill the time that I had previously spent trepidating.
Try lamenting, been working for me lately.
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 11:38 pm #
Ah, lamenting. That sounds much more productive than trepidating.
Comment by panther girl on 12/6 @ 1:01 am #
#33 – Yea, if the nation goes all socialist for real, I figure I have it made – American Indian (oh, pardon me, that’s Native American) single working mom teacher. Hell, I’ll even kiss a woman if it’ll help.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/6 @ 2:11 am #
“May Gaia cradle you in her arms.”
I love my planet and all, but “Gaia” can suck Sol’s hot, global warming, firery cock.
Thank God for Earth’s electromagnetic condom.
Otherwise, that sweet release solar flare would go right in Gaia’s eye.
I love me some local solar system porn.
I’m gonna go spank Titan. She’s a dirty Saturn moon.
I blame Farrah Fawcett cuz of that movie “Saturn 3.”
Comment by Pablo on 12/6 @ 6:01 am #
Oooooh, sorry. Not dark enough. Besides, “Bob Reed” just screams “white guy”, probably Christian too. OPPRESSOR!!!
Comment by Rusty on 12/6 @ 7:00 am #
You see, I am an appreciable fraction Cherokee by heritage; the only group with over-arching victimhood, absolute moral authority, and the trump suit in the identity politics deck.
In other words, your bunch lost. I bet they celebrate Christmas now.
Comment by Froederick Kennewick on 12/6 @ 7:35 am #
“You see, I am an appreciable fraction Cherokee by heritage; the only group with over-arching victimhood, absolute moral authority, and the trump suit in the identity politics deck.”
You “Native Americans” can bite me, my ancestors were living here peacefully till you “natives” came over the Bering land bridge and murdered their asses.
Comment by bluespapa on 12/6 @ 9:28 am #
I’m one who is offended by Christmas trees in federally and state funded institutions. Not offended enough to sue, not offended enough to complain much publicly, but you all ought to be able to distinguish between someone’s birthday cake at a restaurant and public funding and demonstration of religious celebrations.
I also accept that the Supreme Court visited this issue and found that a “Christmas” tree isn’t a religious display, even though I think it was a stupid finding.
I continue to be shocked that some Christians not only accept, but encourage the federal and state governments to encroach on some Christian practice, but even more shocked that Americans who understand the establishment clause of the Bill of Rights mock those who really think separation of church and state is probably more important to the functions of religion than of state.
Such displays in malls and stores, Christmas carols piped in (whether I sing along or am irritated), my downtown association chooses to spruce up with lights, etc., these are not at all the same as a public institution funded by public monies using them and their space to celebrate a religious holiday of any religious group. Study them, yes, certainly, but celebrate? I’m offended. And I don’t understand why you aren’t either. I’m sure you’ll conclude that my attitudes constitute a “war on Christmas,” but on the contrary, I think Christmas is safer, far, far safer in private hands, in churches, homes, in all manner of public displays NOT in government institutions, NOT in the hands of bureaucrats or politicians, NOT determined on a case by case basis the courts that contradict each previous finding.
Those offended by the librarian NOT setting up the Christmas tree sound as stupid to me as you seem to find those offended by the previous librarians setting up the Christmas tree. Having your undies in a bunch over this is just stupid.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 9:31 am #
I’m one who is offended by Christmas trees in federally and state funded institutions.
I think you need to get a hobby.
Comment by Rusty on 12/6 @ 9:40 am #
#45
Who’s it hurting?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
The operative phrase here is “Congress shall make no law……..”.
Enjoy your pagan festival whichever way you choose to practice it.
Comment by SarahW on 12/6 @ 10:14 am #
Are they so ignorant of the origin of the pagan custom of decorated trees at the solstice? Christmas trees can be enjoyed on any number of levels, including the one where you notice a pretty tree in lights at the darkest time of the year.
Comment by SarahW on 12/6 @ 10:15 am #
It has only that spiritual meaning one ascribes to it. Objecting to lighted trees is just silly.
Comment by B Moe on 12/6 @ 10:27 am #
Having your undies in a bunch over this is just stupid.
He states after a five paragraph blast of stupid.
Comment by Darleen on 12/6 @ 10:33 am #
papa
My, you’re cranky this morning. I suggest prunes.
Comment by daleyrocks on 12/6 @ 10:57 am #
papa – How about a fucking mitten tree? That’s how a lot of the schools around me satisfied the whiners like you.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 12/6 @ 11:52 am #
But they’re permitted to set up Kwanzaa, Eid, and Ramadan displays — why not Christmas?
Comment by pianoman on 12/6 @ 12:19 pm #
bluespapa:
Christmas is a Federal holiday. Should it be abolished?
You know — church and state, and all that.
Thanks.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/6 @ 12:32 pm #
Rusty,
I think you miss my point friend. It’s not something I wear on my sleeve, just a line of rebuttal should I be called a RAAAAAAAAACIST!…
Froederick Kennewick,
The same explanation applies for you as well. But I am curious, who got run out by the Indians..?
You both should understand that my disclaimer was based on the accusations of racism I expected due to my previous, uber-long post…
Best Wishes
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 12:38 pm #
Bob, I think he’s talking about this.
Pingback by The Mahablog » Xtianists, Make Up Your Minds on 12/6 @ 12:43 pm #
[...] you ever noticed how often the Christian guerrillas trivialize Christmas even as they defend it? Here’s an example, by a Darlene Click, who is upset because the University of North Carolina libraries will not be [...]
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 12:51 pm #
From the above blog trackback:
Let us first take up the knee-jerk assumption that people complaining about the Christmas trees must be “Leftists.†They might have been atheists (surely there are right-wing atheists), or Jews, or Seventh-Day Adventists.
They might have been, Maha, but they weren’t. You know it.
From the “About” section of Maha’s blog:
: In August 2007 I was a panelist at the Yearly Kos convention in Chicago.
Yep. No leftism there. Nosirree.
Comment by B Moe on 12/6 @ 12:59 pm #
Darlene never mentioned leftists, she called them academic cranks. Maha is the one with the spastic knee.
Comment by Darleen on 12/6 @ 1:00 pm #
SBP
I’m an upset Xtian guerrilla? Who knew?
Comment by Darleen on 12/6 @ 1:01 pm #
And I’m not upset that Maha wants to create a cartoon character of me to argue with, but at least s/he can try and spell my name right.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 1:07 pm #
I forget, which component of the Eightfold Path suggests that calling people “stupid” is a good idea?
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 1:09 pm #
Yeah, I love the version of you that she’s created in her head.
For instance, I’d wager that you’d have no objection whatsoever to the library putting up a display for Ramadan or whatever.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 1:10 pm #
Maha is a typical little fascist bot, it would seem.
Comment by Darleen on 12/6 @ 1:29 pm #
SBP
I love anything that is a celebration. I get a kick out of bookstores putting up stuff to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday. Give me twinkly lights and festive foods, I’m there.
And Maha’s cartoon includes the usual ‘Rethugs want to starve kids and old people’ mendouchieness.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 12/6 @ 1:36 pm #
Odds that Maha will leave her little fascist echo chamber and engage in the conversation here?
Pingback by Poor baby … [Darleen Click] on 12/6 @ 2:57 pm #
[...] Leftist twit Maha is upset because I dared label the academic cranks complaining about the dreaded, highly offensive Tree With Lights display in the library as [...]
Comment by flan on 12/6 @ 10:18 pm #
31. Comment by parsnip on 12/5 @ 10:53 pm #
“And yet the Wiccans don’t really mind sharing their Solstice with other, newer religions.”
Wicca was invented by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s.
Comment by nsd on 12/9 @ 10:25 am #
Christmas is not a Jewish holiday. Judaism is not a subset of Christianity. So any discussion of public displays of Christmas symbols cannot rightfully be termed “Judea-Christophobic”.