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The More Things Change...
The more they stay the same. Fort Collins will continue to have Christmas trees and colored lights under a policy City Council adopted Tuesday.
Who would have thought tannenbaums and colored lights would spark a debate as acrimonious as a four-letter word used against the president?
For the second time in as many months, Fort Collins found itself in the national spotlight as the subject of ridicule, largely from political conservatives, because of something that started as a small issue.
In the end, the Christmas tree controversy, like so many others, died not with a bang, but a whimper.
By a 6-1 vote before a packed City Hall Tuesday, Fort Collins City Council rejected swaths of a proposal by a community task force that had recommended a focus on white light and secular winter symbols as a means of celebrating the holidays. But the council also embraced part of the proposal, which called for a city-sponsored all-faith display at the museum. That display will likely include a menorah, a symbol of the Jewish faith that sparked the debate two years ago.
“Adding to those traditional displays fits Fort Collins. Diminishing those in any way does not fit Fort Collins,” Mayor Doug Hutchinson said shortly before voting for the proposal.
The decision capped two weeks of national attention on Fort Collins, largely from people accusing the city—incorrectly—of wanting to ban Christmas. The council’s decision reflected the desires of many of the 43 residents who took the microphone to criticize the parts of the plan that called for white lights only and no overt displays of Christmas or other holidays.
Thomas Hecker said the task force recommendations would dilute the message of Christmas.
“It still is a federal holiday, and that holiday is to celebrate Christmas,” Hecker said. “We don't celebrate the Baha'i faith on Christmas. The day was set aside for Christmas.”
Elizabeth Springer said she was opposed to the multicultural museum display for the same reason.
“I think it's political correctness gone astray,” she said of the display, which would include symbols from a dozen faiths, from Wiccans who celebrate the solstice with a yule log, to a Nativity scene, to an nine-point star for the Baha'i faith. If Christmas was to be removed from public displays, it should be removed entirely, Springer said.
“Remove it, don't make it a politically correct mishmash,” she said.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik, director of the Chabad Center of Northern Colorado—whose request for a menorah on city property in 2005 sparked the two years of debate that resulted in Tuesday night’s vote—said he never wanted anything to be removed from city displays, just more added.
“Our intention was never to exclude anything that makes people happy,” he said.
He said the city lost focus on the matter at hand—the spirit of all the holidays.
“The holiday season is about what? It's about spreading good will … it’s about harmony. It's not about having policemen ensure the security of a council meeting,” he said, referring to the Fort Collins police officers standing in the back of the council chambers.
For the second time in as many months, Fort Collins found itself in the national spotlight as the subject of ridicule, largely from political conservatives, because of something that started as a small issue.
In the end, the Christmas tree controversy, like so many others, died not with a bang, but a whimper.
By a 6-1 vote before a packed City Hall Tuesday, Fort Collins City Council rejected swaths of a proposal by a community task force that had recommended a focus on white light and secular winter symbols as a means of celebrating the holidays. But the council also embraced part of the proposal, which called for a city-sponsored all-faith display at the museum. That display will likely include a menorah, a symbol of the Jewish faith that sparked the debate two years ago.
“Adding to those traditional displays fits Fort Collins. Diminishing those in any way does not fit Fort Collins,” Mayor Doug Hutchinson said shortly before voting for the proposal.
The decision capped two weeks of national attention on Fort Collins, largely from people accusing the city—incorrectly—of wanting to ban Christmas. The council’s decision reflected the desires of many of the 43 residents who took the microphone to criticize the parts of the plan that called for white lights only and no overt displays of Christmas or other holidays.
Thomas Hecker said the task force recommendations would dilute the message of Christmas.
“It still is a federal holiday, and that holiday is to celebrate Christmas,” Hecker said. “We don't celebrate the Baha'i faith on Christmas. The day was set aside for Christmas.”
Elizabeth Springer said she was opposed to the multicultural museum display for the same reason.
“I think it's political correctness gone astray,” she said of the display, which would include symbols from a dozen faiths, from Wiccans who celebrate the solstice with a yule log, to a Nativity scene, to an nine-point star for the Baha'i faith. If Christmas was to be removed from public displays, it should be removed entirely, Springer said.
“Remove it, don't make it a politically correct mishmash,” she said.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik, director of the Chabad Center of Northern Colorado—whose request for a menorah on city property in 2005 sparked the two years of debate that resulted in Tuesday night’s vote—said he never wanted anything to be removed from city displays, just more added.
“Our intention was never to exclude anything that makes people happy,” he said.
He said the city lost focus on the matter at hand—the spirit of all the holidays.
“The holiday season is about what? It's about spreading good will … it’s about harmony. It's not about having policemen ensure the security of a council meeting,” he said, referring to the Fort Collins police officers standing in the back of the council chambers.
Under the proposal passed Tuesday, a menorah would likely be located at the Fort Collins Museum, but was expressly not permitted anywhere else, including the Fort Collins Senior Center, which had one in the past.
"That needs to be corrected for there to be true inclusion and diversity anywhere outside the museum,” Gorelik said. He conferred briefly with Hutchinson and City Manager Darin Atteberry after the vote to discuss that option, and said he believed the policy could be tweaked to allow a menorah elsewhere.
"The policy could be tweaked to not specifically exclude the menorah from everywhere else," he said. “It seems to me that the council voted for inclusion ... why not let that permeate throughout the whole city?”
Before discussion started, Hutchinson blasted what he called a vast perception that Fort Collins was banning Christmas, accusing the Coloradoan newspaper of furthering misinformation. He said he did not support any recommendations that removed holiday traditions, including colored lights, Christmas trees and wreaths.
Hutchinson had advocated since 2005 for a more inclusive policy.
Council member Wade Troxell—who sported a Christmas tie—suggested rejecting all the task force's recommendations, but no other council members wanted to go that far. Troxell was the only council member to vote against adopting the proposal.
Cheers and applause followed several speakers' comments, and at one point Hutchinson said the meeting was not a place for demonstrations. But some of the most gregarious applause came after Gorelik’s comments, which he concluded by saying:
“Have a very happy holidays in which ever way you celebrate it.”
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"That needs to be corrected for there to be true inclusion and diversity anywhere outside the museum,” Gorelik said. He conferred briefly with Hutchinson and City Manager Darin Atteberry after the vote to discuss that option, and said he believed the policy could be tweaked to allow a menorah elsewhere.
"The policy could be tweaked to not specifically exclude the menorah from everywhere else," he said. “It seems to me that the council voted for inclusion ... why not let that permeate throughout the whole city?”
Before discussion started, Hutchinson blasted what he called a vast perception that Fort Collins was banning Christmas, accusing the Coloradoan newspaper of furthering misinformation. He said he did not support any recommendations that removed holiday traditions, including colored lights, Christmas trees and wreaths.
Hutchinson had advocated since 2005 for a more inclusive policy.
Council member Wade Troxell—who sported a Christmas tie—suggested rejecting all the task force's recommendations, but no other council members wanted to go that far. Troxell was the only council member to vote against adopting the proposal.
Cheers and applause followed several speakers' comments, and at one point Hutchinson said the meeting was not a place for demonstrations. But some of the most gregarious applause came after Gorelik’s comments, which he concluded by saying:
“Have a very happy holidays in which ever way you celebrate it.”
---
History of the Task Force
The 15-member task force was created this summer after two years of controversy surrounding a request in 2005 from a local rabbi to have a menorah as part of the city's holiday display.
The city denied the request and revisited the matter in early 2006, when some City Council members feared adding a menorah to a Christmas tree display would open the floodgates to requests from many other faiths, everything from Nativity scenes to celebrations of Wiccanhood. A temporary holiday display policy called for white or colored lights, traditional secular symbols and written secular messages. City Council formed the task force in July to consider revisions to that temporary policy. Thirty people applied for the job and 15 were chosen. Their recommendations were announced on Nov. 6, and after national media and many residents picked up the story, city staff made some changes that resulted in three options before council on Tuesday: keep the old policy; adopt the recommendations; or adopt some recommendations and keep some elements of the old policy. Ultimately, the council passed the third option, which will allow Christmas trees and colored lights to remain in city displays as well as adding an educational all-faiths display at the museum. |
