Oh, look! Here’s an upcoming seasonal festive event in Elkridge.
Celebrate the season with us on Thursday, December 5, 2024, as we come together to decorate and light up our community trees in Elkridge! Join your neighbors and community staff for a festive evening filled with holiday cheer. At the Elkridge Fire House, decorating begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the tree lighting at 5:45 p.m. Over at the Elkridge Library, decorating starts at 6 p.m., with the tree lighting at 6:15 p.m. Decorations will be provided, so just bring your holiday spirit and loved ones to make Elkridge shine bright this season. We look forward to seeing you there! - - Howard County Executive Calvin Ball’s Facebook page
And, just as soon as the information gets posted, the trolls move in.
They are not community trees. They are Christmas trees. Only in your world, which is a farce, is a lit tree called a community tree. Human beings, and Christians, call these Christmas trees. There is nothing political in this. You stand to gain nothing. Like you bow to your political constituency, there is no bow here. This is just residents looking to celebrate a season called CHRISTMAS!
Well this is a new reason to get offended. Still, not that new because some folks ranted about it last year, too. Their beef? That the County Executive uses the word “community” when they want him to say “Christmas.”
I have a few questions.
Is the County forbidding residents to use the word Christmas? To celebrate Christmas? To put up explicitly Christmas decorations?
No.
Time after time these folks jump on this as though their free speech rights are being violated. Their tone of righteous indignation is cranked up to eleven. But no one is threatening their freedom. No one is taking anything away from them. In fact, it’s the reverse.
They are attempting to keep the County Executive from using a word they don’t like. He is the one under attack here. These trolls have made it their job to police every word and every action and they somehow justify to themselves this hateful behavior. Behavior, I might add, that would earn them censure or at least substantial blowback if they tried it at work, at home, or with friends.
This particular poster seems to suggest that County Executive Ball is neither a human being nor a Christian because he chooses to say “Community Trees.”
Really? That’s what you want to set the world on fire about?
Good government realizes that not all people are the same. Good public servants look for ways to make community events more inclusive or, at the very least, less exclusive. People who celebrate Christmas are certainly free to do so but they do not have the right to impose their beliefs, traditions, and celebrations on others like a steamroller or a conquering army.
That’s not joyous. It’s ugly.
Now you may harbor the personal belief that saying “community trees” is kind of silly and/or you aren’t quite sure why it’s necessary. That’s fine. On the other hand, you may be grateful that you are being invited to a community event in December that isn’t dripping with Christian symbolism because you aren’t Christian. It’s hard for those of us who have been celebrating Christmas our entire lives to fully comprehend how much our celebrations can come across as the demands of a dominant culture.
Holiday celebrations aren’t harmless if you use them to ostracize and “other” those who don’t conform to your expectations. When you think it’s okay to go after the County Executive’s right to Free Speech - - maybe you need to sit down and rethink what exactly it is you are celebrating every December.
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