<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Don't ya just hate it when groups try to ruin your Christmas?</DIV>
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<DIV>Merry Christmas and Happy Holydays,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Donovan Arnold<BR><BR>--- On <B>Sun, 12/6/09, Tom Hansen <I><thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] Atheists Want Sign at Capitol<BR>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Date: Sunday, December 6, 2009, 2:09 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>“In this holiday season let us remember that kindness, charity and<BR>goodwill transcend belief, creed or religion.”<BR><BR>Courtesy of today's (December 6, 2009) Spokesman Review.<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Atheists want sign at Capitol<BR>Seattle group’s request coincides with tree-lighting<BR><BR>OLYMPIA – A Seattle-based atheists group asked state officials Friday for<BR>permission to display a placard outdoors on the Capitol campus over the<BR>holidays.<BR><BR>Jerry Schiffelbein, the treasurer for Seattle Atheists and an activist in<BR>other “free-thought” groups that advocate separation between church and<BR>state, said the sign’s message is less provocative than those that the<BR>Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation put up last year.<BR><BR>The proposed 18-by-30-inch sign says, “In this holiday season let us<BR>remember that kindness, charity and goodwill
transcend belief, creed or<BR>religion.”<BR><BR>The request to put up the sign came the day that state officials lit up a<BR>48-foot holiday tree inside the domed Capitol rotunda, a yearly tradition<BR>now entirely under state sponsorship. The evening event featured Gov.<BR>Chris Gregoire; Army Staff Sgt. Stephanie McDowell, who recently returned<BR>from Iraq; and a children’s chorale.<BR><BR>The atheists’ request – just like two requests to display a Jewish menorah<BR>Thursday through Dec. 19 – will be considered under the state policy<BR>adopted after last December’s ruckus over holiday displays inside the<BR>Capitol, Department of General Administration spokesman Steve <SPAN><SPAN>Valandra</SPAN></SPAN><BR>said Friday. He expects a decision on the requests Monday.<BR><BR>“We thought we would get more requests. There is still time,” he said.<BR><BR>Last December, the GA declared a moratorium because it had about a dozen<BR>requests
from groups wanting to put up displays, and a third-floor area<BR>for displays was getting crowded. The GA had approved a half-dozen of the<BR>requests, including a Nativity set, an atheist placard that mocked<BR>religion as superstition, Christian placards that mocked atheism, and a<BR>9-foot menorah.<BR><BR>Requests halted by the moratorium included a “Festivus” pole from the mock<BR>holiday celebrated on the TV show “Seinfeld,” a “flying spaghetti<BR>monster,” and one from a Kansas church that assails homosexuality.<BR><BR>Before the controversy ended, someone stole the atheists’ placard.<BR>Thousands of complaints flooded the governor’s office and the GA after a<BR>national television commentator condemned the state for allowing the<BR>atheists’ display near the Nativity scene.<BR><BR>The GA has approved one display request so far this year. It was one of<BR>two submitted by Chabad Jewish Discovery Center in Olympia for a
9-foot<BR>menorah. The approved request is for Sylvester Park, a state-owned<BR>property in downtown Olympia; the other is for a menorah next to the<BR>Tivoli Fountain on the campus lawn.<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change<BR>and the Realist adjusts his sails."<BR><BR>- Unknown<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A> <BR> mailto:<A
href="http://us.mc447.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>