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| A living Christmas tree (photo by EbenVisher). |
In protest of Governor Lincoln Chafee's decision to call the blue spruce erected in the statehouse a "holiday tree," Tea Party darling Doreen Costa (R-NK) plans to install and decorate a Christmas tree in her office on December 6, the day the governor will be holding a tree-lighting ceremony. Costa's first action as a legislator, you might recall, was to pass a symbolic resolution declaring that Christmas trees be called Christmas trees and not any "other non-traditional terms."
Associated Press quotes Costa as saying: "Anybody that wants to go see a holiday tree can do so, but I will be decorating a Christmas tree. It may only be a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but at least it will be a Christmas tree."
Chafee defends his decision by citing Rhode Island's founding as a haven for people fleeing religious intolerance and suggests that people's energies would be better spent helping improve the lives of their fellow Rhode Islanders rather than agitating over what the tree is called.
As a practicing druid, I frankly don't care what the trees are called as long as they're left alive. I strenuously object to the wholesale slaughter of trees this time of year. And then people strap them to the roofs of their vehicles like they're bringing their kill home from the hunt. It's barbaric. And I don't think it's even legal in Charlestown what with our tree ordinance and all. Where's that tree warden when you need him.
Rather than kill a tree, I encourage everyone to get a living tree this year. It grows outside 11 months of the year and then you can bring it indoors for December. It'll be the last Christmas—er, holiday—tree you'll ever need to buy.