By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Television news converged on the Oakville Fire Department yesterday, focusing on a biblical Christmas message that a commissioner had ordered removed from their sign.
According to King5.com: “The reader board said ‘Unto us a Savior is born. Merry Christmas,'” said firefighter Shawn Burdett. “My chief got a call from a commissioner that said we needed to take down the message or we needed to include all religions on the board.”
On Monday night, about 200 residents met with commissioners, who then voted to restore the the message, according to Kirotv.com.
Department spokesperson Burdett told Kirotv.com while the sign and tree are on public property, they were paid for with private donations.
My payroll for my employees is 2 times, maybe 3 of your liberal scum-bag governors yearly salary, that’s monthly! But the best part is not one of my 52 employees is a liberal, I vet the shit out of my staff ! Well rat I got shit to do, merry x-mass , from MAUI , be back in a month to pay your welfare!! đ
@lazyoldman: would be happy to compare my lifetime earnings or my net worth to yours anytime if that counts for anything. Also am a Vietnam vet and qualify for a disability stipend but don’t take it or need it. Worked all my life from 12 years old.
My income topped the governor’s official salary for many years and, yes I was lazy, working from the corner of my couch in my underwear. But I did get up to walk my dogs and take a pee from time to time:)
Your angry postings sound like a cry for help. The root cause of anger is fear. If I feel angry or anxious I try to identify the fear behind it and deal with it.
Such hate and anger and venom!
Is it just a coincidence that the hate, anger, assumptions about others, and personal attacks comes only from the so-called ”christians” here while the rest of us have quietly and reasonably presented our opinion without attacking others?
Happy holidays!
Just because all my friends and relatives are just sick of the p.c. Bull-shit,people who can’t support their own families or are just to fuckn lazy,stupid or a combination of both,that think that anyone with half a brain would care about the opinions of a welfare rat!! As for me tough guy , your food got purchased for you because you look homeless??? Have you ever thought about that? now I have work to do , hard work supporting you scum bags .
Although I am not a Christian, I believe that there is so much wisdom in the teachings attributed to Jesus. There is much to say about out angry friends:
This is from http://www.soulshepherding.org/2012/07/jesus-way-of-dealing-with-anger/
Donât let anger control you; address it in love
âI tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversaryâ (Matthew 5:22-25).
Jesus is not saying that the emotion of anger is sinful. He is saying that anger is dangerous and to be careful!
Stand before the Lord as your gracious Judge and ask yourself: âWhat am I angry about? Why am I angry? What is an honest and gracious way to deal with this?â Then seek to resolve the conflict that angers you ASAP and do so in love. This is so important that you may need to interrupt a sacred ritual or a time of prayer (Matthew 5:23-24).
Be the first to say âIâm sorryâ or to offer empathy and compassion. Of course, this is not fair, but do it anyway because God does it for you. You can âForgive as the Lord forgave youâ (Colossians 3:13).
Donât seek revenge when mistreated; share Godâs generosity
âLove your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteousâ (Matthew 5:44-45).
If we give in to angry feelings and justify them the next thing we want to do is to act on them and get even. Jesusâ point here is donât seek revenge; God is gracious with you so you be gracious to others. Treat conflict and injustice as an opportunity for God to bring out the best in you, not the worst, for you to grow in your capacity to share the kindness of Christ.
Get help for your problem before you help another
âDo not judge, or you too will be judged⌠First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brotherâs eyeâ (Matthew 7:1, 5).
There is more but you can just search on “Jesus on Anger” if you don’t have money for a phycologist.
@youareamoron: You really should get that rage under control before someone gets hurt. You sound like the road rager who I encountered yesterday when turning off highway 12. Seems I didn’t turn off the road fast enough for his liking and he confronted me in the eating establishment’s parking lot.
In the old days I would have picked his ugly scab and let the puss run out but I calmly explained to him that I turned slowly off the road because the entrance to the parking lot was full of water filled potholes and I didn’t want to drive through them too fast.
Like you, the guy was just ready to blow and just needed an excuse. I didn’t give him one and he finally just left. It could have turned ugly if I had reacted to him. I hope that he didn’t go down the road and take it out on someone else, his dog, or his family.
Then a very nice thing happened. When I went to pay for our lunch, the waiter said that a lady had paid for both me and my companion and she had left a nice note saying “I just wanted to show that not everyone is like that jerk”. It’s hard to accept someone buying me a free lunch and I’m not sure that I deserved it, but she was gone.
If you claim to be a Christian, you might ask yourself, what would Jesus think of my anger and hatred?
Who gives a shit about a sign!! Fkn loosers like you , who have nothing better to do than bitch and wine , you need to keep your welfare driven opinion out of the conversation, you speek for a small group of P.C dip-shits ,, how about we cut your welfare!! ONLY One GOD! No matter what anyone says ,you are misinformed,
Response to Free Air: No one should be offended about Christ or Christmas. What people are, and should be, is concerned that a religion is being promoted by a government agency on government property. You see, the government is prohibited from promoting any religion. The first settlers came here to escape religious persecution and forced participation. This is what happens when the government and religion merge. In England religious education was made compulsory by the government. That is why the founders of our country created a secular government. It is outrageus, as well as illegal, for a government agency to make the claim that “A savior has been born unto us”. As a side note it is very unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25th. But then again the bible says that King Herod had his men out hunting for the baby jesus to have him killed. As I am sure you already know, King Herod died 4 years B.C. Yes, 4 years before baby jesus was alleged to have been born. Hmm.
You people haven’t got a clue!!! 40 year ago I had the misfortune of falling through a frozen river , I was found under the ice 1 hour and 20 min later. I was dead !!! And I’m here to tell you that your wrong!! What I saw was beautiful, and every day since, I look forward to my homecoming. No Jesus ??? Good luck with that!! From what I know to be 100% correct,your very misinformed and the clock is always ticking away, Jesus is going to judge us all , I hope you’re read , merry Christmas. Mohammad is a joke , just like the rest of the misinformed !!
Egad!
Someone is shocked and offended because Christ is in Christmas?
Ok, how about a compromise.
Lets let Christmas be Christmas, and for those of you who want to do something joyous with another religion this December, well it just so happens that December the 22 is marked as Mohammad’s Birthday, so join in with all the festivities surrounding Mohammad’s Birthday instead of the birth of Christ; yea, I know. I can’t think of anything positive about Mohammad’s birthday either but at least you won’t be acknowledging the birth of Christ.
@oh ya: You shouldn’t make assumptions about people just because they think rationally and aren’t full of hate and anger. Most of us have worked all of our lives, been successful, and have tried to do the right thing. I can’t imagine how it feels to be old and full of anger. How could you be happy that way?
CrazyOldMan:
I agree with everything you said.
I’m still waiting for your god to weigh in on this. Seems you have heard nothing from him in quite some time. But then that is par for the course. If you accept the fact that homo sapiens have been on this earth for, at a minimum, 100,000 years. That means that your god sat back and watched suffering, death and misery for 98,000 years before he decided to intervene. Talk about a deadbeat dad.
Sad state when you have morons without a dime giving opinions, democrats are poor lil people with no hope of a good life, until nice well paid Republicans give you your free shit, so just brush your last tooth and wait for your welfare check!! Because if a Republican takes office your free ride is over!!! Chump !
We are a product of our news source and my new source tells me “Jesus is the reason for the Season”. Keep up the good work Oakville Fire dept and Lewis County Sirens !!
We are truly headed for a religious war. Even if we are blessed by law with the separation of church and state, it certainly is a main issue in politics.
Just listening to the GOP debate morons last night and their pandering to the Islamophobs I’ve come to the opinion the that U.S. and it’s “allies” are in for a long crusade in the Syria and surrounding counties. One day we are funding them and the next day we are bombing them. It’s really hard to figure out who we like and who we hate from day to day.
This Christian message on a public facility may seem like a small thing but these are the people who are supporting or tragic warmongering and thereby the destruction of our moral standing in the world as well as our financial destruction.
Gail Sanders said: “Jesus is the reason for the celebration of Christmas. God will judge us all, especially you Mr. Commissioner. In His eyes, you are of no importance.”
So, because one Commissioner believes there should be a separtion of church and state and that religious messages do NOT belong on government property – and rightly so – that makes him of “no importance” to your “god?”
Wow! That’s some kind, forgiving, and benevolent “god” you’ve got there! More like vengeful and spiteful to me! Why would anyone want to worship a “god” like that?
.
To “o-ya:”
Why do you hate America and the First Amendment?
Firefighters thank you.
Commissioner get fired.
Unto us a Savior is born, Merry Christmas.
Actully, this country was NOT based on christian beliefs, despite what our blathering, barely literate, name-calling friend here would like us to believe. A quick google search will provide plenty of sources to the contrary, in fact, such as this one that I pulled up this morning:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/living/america-christian-nation/
Now, for me, I would prefer to get my information from educated people – professors and scholars and authors – rather than someone who apparently not only didn’t pass third grade English but history as well and who is unable to string together a coherent and intelligible sentence, who likely thinks Donald Trump should be president, and who probably says things like: “Keep the government out of my Medicare!”
A quote from the link I posted: If the founders had not made their stance on this “Christian nation” issue clear enough in the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they certainly did in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli.
Begun by George Washington, signed by John Adams and ratified unanimously by a Senate still half-filled with signers of the Constitution, this treaty announced firmly and flatly to the world that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
Anyway, lots of good information just in that one link (there are plenty more) for those who continue to insist that we are a “christian nation” (or for anyone else who could use a refresher). Perhaps our friend, ”to bad,” could get someone to help him with the big words.
Isn’t it , my Jesus is the eye for a eye Jesus. I’ll turn the other cheek, when my country is a safe place to live again!! Not kissing asses of some other b.s religion, so the liberal P.C cops and anyone else , if you want to change our country to a welfare state just keep your dip-shit opinion to yourself , liberal trash!!; merry Christmas and F.Y.I only one god!!! JESUS!! Get on the Jesus train, it’s a great ride!!!!
Its time to do a banner hang on I 5.
@Ugh: I guess I should put my brain in gear. That was directed at @too bad. Wish we could edit.
I’m sorry, my comment was in reply to @Ugh not @to bad or @too bad.
@Too Bad: I’ll bet I’m just as red neck as you – I just don’t harbor as much hostility. I consider myself an agnostic which means that I “don’t know”. I do believe that we have purpose beyond this world.
My first two rules for happiness are:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Let go and let God (I prefer to visualize the God Force as a wind blowing through our lives).
And Christmas was a solstice holiday for many different people of different beliefs. Christians just co-opted it and added their stuff.
@to bad – I took the liberty of editing your comment. When you choose to leave a grammatically challenged comment, it tends to make you look even more ignorant than you already sounded. By the way, not all Christians share your sentiments. I would rather have a conversation with a well-educated Muslim any day of the week before sitting down to coffee with you. I’m embarrassed by statements like yours. Merry Christmas!!!
Too Bad says, This country was founded on Christian beliefs, if you donât like it, too fucking bad for you… you bleeding heart liberal trash. If Muslims or anyone else donât like it, they can go back to where they’re from. It’s bad enough they come here and drain the welfare system, but now they are telling people who can wish who a merry Christmas. Take away their welfare and then I bet they’ll shut the fuck up!! Too much trash in our country as is… thanks to liberal scum like you.
Nice christian sentiment.
Jesus is the reason for the celebration of Christmas. God will judge us all, especially you Mr. Commissioner. In His eyes, you are of no importance.
This country was based on Christian beliefs, if you don’t like it to fucking bad for you, bleeding heart liberal trash. If the Muslims or anyone else don’t like it go back to were your from. Its bad enough they come here and drain the welfare system ,now telling people who can wish who a merry x-mass. Take away there welfare,I bet they shut the fuck up then !! To much trash in our country as is.. Thanks to liberal scum like you.
If you don’t like it, don’t look. It’s not hurting anybody. Signed an agnostic.
The commissioner is correct in that Christianity shouldn’t be exclusively promoted on the public’s property. The Oakville firefighters should concentrate on protecting their community and the generic “Happy Holidays” message.
I’m a person that had to fight my parents tooth and nail from the age of 6 for my right not to practice Christianity. I don’t really find the Christmas message offensive but they need to keep religion of all types out of and off of government property.
I absolutely agree – that unless all religions (and non-religions) are allowed to also post messages, then no messages at all should be allowed. If a group of atheists wanted to post a message, paid for by private funds, would that be allowed? Or Muslims posting a message representative of their faith? Not every one is a “christian” and there are reasons there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. The Commissioner made the right decision.