Please forward.

SECRET SANTA NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Rusty Paul, my landlord, is heading up the effort this season in conjunction with the State of Georgia to see to it that children in Georgia’s foster homes have presents under the Christmas tree. Most of these children have been placed in foster care because of severe neglect, abuse and sometimes abandonment.

This year, there are approximately 3,000 children in the Secret Santa Program that need gifts at Christmas--a 20% increase from last year. These children range in age from birth to 13 years and you can give one of two ways.

You can either adopt a child and shop for them yourselves or you can make a check payable to State of Georgia Secret Santa Fund and mail to ISquared Communications, 8975 Roswell Road, Atlanta, GA 30350. If you would rather adopt a child contact Jan Paul at janpaul@isquaredcommunications.com or Erin Brown at erinbrown@isquaredcommunications.com. The suggested donation is $75 per child. That amount is tax-deductible to you and will purchase three gifts for each child.

Due to circumstances out of their control, these foster children are obviously facing enough adversity, and having no gifts under the Christmas tree should not be added to their unfortunate circumstances. Please consider sponsoring or adopting one or more of these children.

*****

Unfortunately, I became ill prior to Thanksgiving and was not able to get out a message to my email family wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

I did recover in time to have 16 family members over to my home for the day. Six of my grandchildren were there and I could not have asked for anything better than to watch them laughing and playing with each other.

I hope your day was as special as mine.

*****

It is gratifying to see some retailers who have refused to acknowledge Christmas changing their policy. Two of those are Lowe’s and Federated Department Stores (Macy’s). However, there are many who continue to refuse to use Christmas in their advertising. They include Kmart, Sears, Home Depot, Target, JC Penney, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreen’s, Staples, Dell and Best Buy.

It is the height of hypocrisy for these retailers to refuse to recognize Christmas, while taking Christian’s money to further their bottom line. I will not patronize any retailer that refuses to call Christmas – Christmas – and hope you will join me. Whatever inconvenience I might suffer by having to drive further in order to shop is worth it in order to send a message that “enough is enough.”

THANK YOU SPEAKER HASTERT!

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has told federal officials that the lighted, decorated tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol -- known in recent years as the "Holiday Tree" -- should be renamed the "Capitol Christmas Tree," as it was called until the late 1990s.

The Capitol's senior landscape architect confirmed the name switch yesterday for The Washington Times.

"It was known as the 'Holiday Tree' for several years and just recently was changed back to the 'Capitol Christmas Tree.' This was a directive from the speaker," said Capitol architect Matthew Evans.

"The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.

The Capitol tree, traditionally overshadowed by the White House's "National Christmas Tree," was renamed a "holiday tree" several years ago, according to the Capitol Architect's offices, in an effort to acknowledge the other holidays of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah -- although no one seemed to know exactly when the name was changed or by whom.
Calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree has become a politically charged prospect in jurisdictions across the country -- from Boston to Sacramento and in dozens of communities in between.

"It's a growing problem," said Jared N. Leland, spokesman and legal counsel for the Becket Fund, a District-based legal and educational institute. "Celebrating the season with Christmas trees ... and leaving them named 'Christmas' is simply recognizing the religious nature of people. Christmas should be able to be called Christmas."

The debate boiled over in Boston last week when the city's Web site referred to a giant tree erected on Boston Common as a "holiday tree."

The new name drew the ire of Christians and evangelical leader the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whose law group the Liberty Counsel threatened to sue if the tree wasn't rechristened with Christmas.

"The Boston Christmas tree situation is symbolic of what's happening ... around the country," said Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel. "Government officials, either because of misinformation, or private retailers, for politically correct reasons, are trying to secularize Christmas.

"To rename a Christmas tree as a holiday tree is as offensive as renaming a Jewish menorah a candlestick," Mr. Staver said.

The Nova Scotia logger who cut down the 48-foot tree for Boston also was indignant. Donnie Hatt said he would not have donated the tree if he had known of the name change. (The Washington Times, November 29, 2005)

Thank you for Keeping The Faith.
Sadie Fields