What if Christmas were just a white holiday?

[Goblinmonger]

I know it isn't, but give me a second. And the whites that celebrated Christmas got to put up a display in City Hall celebrating their holiday. So the other races asked to put up a display, too, given the 1st amendment and put up a sign that said, "God isn't white." Would this be offensive? Or replace straight for white.

To me, it's the same thing. Once it is in the PUBLIC SQUARE, it is open to comment and those comments need to be allowed. If it is on private property, then you have a right to bitch. But if you put up a display that basically says "Hey, there is a god and look how great that god is" then you HAVE TO be ready for the display that says "Um, no, there isn't a god and people have done bad things in the name of that god." To whine that it is disrespectful is crazy. Put the display up in your church or at your house and I GUARANTEE YOU that I will leave you alone.

[HamdenRice]

1. Here in NYC we have big displays on Jewish holidays and as ...

a non-Jew, African American atheist, it doesn't bother me a bit. There are very, very few black Jews (although in the Crown Heights Hasidic community, I've run into maybe one Black Jew over 20 years or so), but it's safe to say that Jewish displays of Menorahs, etc., are for whites only.

Doesn't bother me one bit.

I generally don't care about other people's belief systems -- whether suppressing or supporting them, whether in the public square or not.

I have no urge to dispute their account of oil magically lasting for the number of days represented by the number of candles in the Menorah, nor of the archeology of the Jewish exile or anything else. Nor do I have any desire to put up a counter display.

Live and let live. I don't want Christian fundamentalists in my face disputing my beliefs, and I don't want militant atheists in my face disputing my beliefs. As a result I leave other people alone in their beliefs and their displays of their beliefs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. The point is not the display - it is the state selectively supporting some

displays and not supporting others.

Do whatever you want on private property. That's what it's there for.

State property is for state business. That's what it's there for.