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State legislator: It's a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree

By Ryan J. Foley
The Associated Press

MADISON â€" Oh, how the holidays can be stressful. A debate over what to call the giant tree in the Capitol this time of year turned contentious during a public hearing today.


Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, asked his colleagues to support his plan to rename the holiday tree the “Wisconsin State Christmas Tree.” He said the tree was known as a Christmas tree from 1916 until wobbly state officials changed its name in 1985.

“I am here today to voice the ire and frustration of the majority of people of the state of Wisconsin who want their Christmas tree back in the state Capitol, not a politically correct holiday tree,” Schneider said, nearly shouting.

But Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation said lawmakers shouldn’t waste their time debating such trivial issues. Calling it a “Christmas” tree would offend nonreligious people and amount to a government endorsement of Christianity, she added.

“The state of Wisconsin cannot have a Christmas anything,” said Gaylor, whose Madison-based group represents atheists and agnostics.

Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, wasn’t buying her argument. He said the word holiday itself “means holy day, representative of Christmas, the holiest day in the Christian calendar.”

“You will not be happy until we have a godless world,” he told Gaylor. “You ask for an unreasonable degree of political correctness.”

Gaylor shot back. “If you know you’re excluding people by calling it a Christmas tree, why should you do that? It’s impolite.”

Rep. Karl Van Roy, R-Howard, chairman of the Assembly committee on state affairs, said his committee and hopefully the full Assembly would approve Schneider’s plan before Christmas.

The tree this year is a 35-foot balsam fir. The Menominee Nation donated the tree, which was harvested on tribal land near Neopit. Workers moved the tree in Monday and an official lighting ceremony is scheduled for Friday.

The Department of Administration says other religious symbols, including a menorah and a Baptist Church holiday sign, will be displayed in the Capitol in December. So will Gaylor’s group’s sign which calls religion “superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Schneider noted thousands of visitors come every year to see the tree, which is decorated with ornaments made by Wisconsin children and has a toy locomotive circling its base.

“If it looks like a Christmas tree, and it smells like a Christmas tree and it’s decorated like a Christmas tree and it has presents under it like a Christmas tree, it’s a Christmas tree!” he shouted.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/GPG0101/71128156/1207/GPGnews

I'd like to say to all my friends and for all who might listen that if you are so fortunate as to have one or both parents still living that I ask of you to please hug them, hold them close and by all means let them know you care. My mother passed when I was a young man, on Thanksgiving day some 43 years ago. Theres not a week that goes by that she isn't in my thoughts. My father passed some 12 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer's. I don't care how big you are or how grown up you feel there is no feeling like losing ones parents. It may not always be easy, it may not always be convenient, but they are your parents and they done for you long before you could do for yourself. Don't ever take them for granted, for one day you too may be wishing more then anything that you could have them back.
Say a prayer for us all and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,
~Tony (Wolftraveler)~

In the early morning hours of 23 October 1983, a truck loaded with explosives crashed through the security perimeter of the United States Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In the explosion that followed, 241 U.S. Military personnel were killed and 80 seriously wounded. These young people, on a mission of peace in a land stricken by violence, were killed as they slept. They are remembered here in grateful appreciation of their sacrifice on behalf of freedom.

US Citizens have been requesting the Postmaster General and the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee to create a stamp honoring those fallen heroes for the last 19 years. Some reasons for not doing so have been "We try hard to honor positive things." "People want non-controversial pretty stamps." "Beirut lacked significance in American history and not enough people were killed." Please follow this link to sign the petition and give a lasting gift to the gold star mothers, wives, fathers, sons, daughters and families left behind.

Marines

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PFC John Blocker, Yulee, Florida
Cpat Joseph Boccia, Jr, Northport, New York
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Cpl John Bonk, Jr., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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SSgt Leland Gann, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
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Marine, Name withheld at next of kin's request, Wisconsin
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SSgt Thomas Thorstad, Chesterton, Indiana
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Capt Walter Wint, Jr., Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
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1stLt Donald Woollett, Barthesville, Oklahoma
PFC Craig Wyche, Jamaica, New York
Cpl Jeffrey Young, Morristown, New Jersey
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Navy

HMI Ronny K. Bates, Aiken, SC
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HM Bryan L. Earle, Painesville, OH
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Army

SP4 Marcus E. Coleman, Dallas, TX
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My Dog Otis

"Otis"
May 8th, 1992 - November 3, 2007
"I'll See You Again My Lifelong Friend"

I would like to thank everyone for their support in regards to my dog "Otis"

Otis passed away at 4pm this afternoon.
My constant companion of 15 plus years, he will be greatly missed by me and my family.
I Love You Otis.
~Tony~

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