Redstate's War on Xmas action item is mendacious
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 11:32:41 AM PDT
I just received my action advisory from the Redstate email list, suggesting that I should register my protest over an opinion written by the Dem Attorney General of Oklahoma, banning mentions of Christmas at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Drew Edmondson is the Oklahoma Attorney General. Recently he rounded up conservative activists and threw them in jail for circulating petitions to get conservatives on the ballot.
Now...Edmondson has done something even nuttier....issued an advisory opinion ...directing universities and public employees in Oklahoma to refrain from using or writing the word "Christmas."... should not be spoken by any employee of the state school, not written in any official holiday decorations."
Attorney General Edmondson can be reached at 405-521-3921.
But, WHAT IF IT ISN'T TRUE??????
A winger legal action site elaborates this now-dubious story:
The controversy began when the University's Director of Human Resources recently visited various departments and said that decorations featuring the word "Christ" or Christmas" in any areas of the University must be immediately removed.
He also instructed the employees not so use the word "Christmas" in emails.
Tell the University's president to help save Christmas from the censors! He needs to hear from thousands of Americans who can point out the absurdity of banning the word "Christmas." After all, Christmas is a state and federal legal holiday!
Contact information for University President John M. Hays: Telephone (580) 774-3766, Fax (580) 774-7101, email president@swosu.edu
I expect Edmondson is being set up here by some enterprising enemies (is that you, Karl?) and is gonna take a beating from some terrified Oklahomans, fauxers, and wingers on this one. Send a little love to the email, fax, and/or phones listed, and Happy Holidays!!!
UPDATE from PhillyBits:
I told her that it was on RedState's site and on the Examiner's site, gave them Mark Tapscott's name and also asked if perhaps something had happened that might have been miscontrued, as there are often stories about universities putting up "Happy Holidays" signs and such and then being seen, and subsequently attacked with the charge that the university is stifling religious freedom, often by religious groups who band together to spread the same message far and wide and whom conservative sites often repost.
Then I contacted Southwestern Oklahoma State University and asked the same question while also indicating I had already contacted the AG's office and been told flatly that this was completely false. The woman I spoke with agreed it wasn't true and I then asked again if something had happened that could've been miscontrued as an attempt to remove Christmas from the school in an act of defiant censorship. She didn't know, or wasn't authorized to discuss it further. However she did take my number and told me their Public Relations and Marketing Director, Brian Adler, would give me a call back.
I'm looking forward to that call to see if Mr. Adler has more to add to this story but so far, according to the Oklahoma AG's office as well as the University itself, this story, as presented, is false.
Condoleaser confirms below in the comments that the characterization by RedState is completely distorted: the issue is only with official communications.
It seems to me that this policy seems to be conformity with most other governmental agencies across the country.
I would still suggest that it might be a good idea to email the U and voice your support.
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