HAPPY HANUKKAH….FROM POLITICALLY CORRECT SEATTLE!
Sorry, City of Seattle, but a Hanukkah Menorah is not a "structure". It's a traditional symbol of the holiday, used to facilitate the candle-lighting for the eight day Festival of Lights. Diane and I were walking through Westlake Plaza on the way to a great art exhibition (Andrew Wyeth) at the Seattle Art Museum when we were pleased to see a special "Holiday Village" set up for the season....with a playground and carousel for kids, booths with crafts people and refreshments for their parents. At the edge of the Holiday Village—clearly separate from the rest—was the menorah provided by Chabad, a wonderful world-wide Jewish organization devoted to bringing authentic Jewish tradition to a broader audience. You can only imagine how the city's bureaucrats must have struggled with the desire to place this "structure" on city property. On the one hand, they don't want to be accused of anti-Semitism, and on the other they need to make it clear that they don't endorse anything as dangerous and inappropriate as lighting candles on Hanukkah. For the record, we would have preferred that the "Holiday Village" had been designated a "Christmas Village" (no, we don't find Christmas controversial or offensive) and we do suspect that the Menorah could have appeared without the apology from the city. Happy Hanukkah (it begins tonight), and Merry Christmas --- MM