By William Markiewicz
I read about a judge who ordered that a small Christmas tree be removed from a public place because non-Christians might look at it and feel they “are not part of this institution.”
When the Europeans came to America, they didn’t object to the magical, religious, spiritual symbols of the Natives. The missionaries certainly did, but it was not politically motivated. The European immigrants to America, mostly Christians and Anglo Saxons, of course brought their language, customs, and way of life. They didn’t keep this territory for themselves but opened the gates to everybody, in the beginning mostly European and Christian, and then came significant religious and ethnic minorities. As the European immigrants didn’t interfere too much with the spiritual symbols of the First Nations, so the successive waves of immigrants shouldn’t interfere with the religious and spiritual symbols of the ‘second’ nation. It is not a political matter but a matter of landmarks which the second nation has a right to introduce and keep as a testimony of their contribution to the creation of the country. They deserve respect from those who are part of the ‘third’ wave. Everybody should have the right to keep his symbols at home or in their neighbourhood but for public areas, meaning the patrimony that belongs to everybody, the second nation’s symbols should stay in their place of prominence because it is part of ineradicable history.
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William Markiewicz