Wanted: Cultural anthropologist to sort out Seattle's Christmas trees

Are public Christmas trees an "unconstitunal endorsement of one religion over another"? The debates about the removal of nine Christmas trees at the Seattle airport remind of the hijab-controversis and the display of (supposedly) religious symbols in the public. The Christmas trees at the airport had come down after a rabbi requested that a Hanukkah menorah also be displayed. "We decided to take the trees down because we didn't want to be exclusive," said airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt.

Seattle Times:

Port of Seattle staff felt adding the menorah would have required adding symbols for other religions and cultures in the Northwest, said Terri-Ann Betancourt, the airport's spokeswoman. The holidays are the busiest season at the airport, she said, and staff didn't have time to play cultural anthropologists.

Andrew Gumbel comments in The Independent:

By Monday night, the trees were back, as if nothing had happened. Airport officials, frantically wiping egg off their collective faces, thanked Rabbi Bogomilsky for seeing the light and promised to rethink their seasonal decorations for next year. Cultural anthropologists across the US are no doubt busy honing their application letters already.

>> Wanted: cultural anthropologist to sort out Seattle's 'holiday trees' (Andrew Gumbel, The Independent 13.12.06)

>> Airport puts away holiday trees rather than risk being "exclusive" (Seattle Times, 10.12.06)

>> Christmas trees going back up at Sea-Tac (Seattle Times, 12.12.06)

>> Treeless in Seattle? The port stumbles (Robert L. Jamieson Jr, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 12.12.06)

>> Christmas trees date back to ancient nature lovers (seattle Times, 12.12.06)