Now that the more important holiday is over...

Green Bay removed its controversial nativity scene from the roof of City Hall today, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation is going ahead with their lawsuit against the city. I've written about this quite a bit already (here and here), but I'll add that I'm glad the FFRF is keeping up the good fight. The mayor's lame excuse for prohibiting all other symbols but the nativity was that they didn't have any rules in place for dealing with that kind of thing, so now would be their chance, with the help of the FFRF, to get it right.

Of course, taking the creche down today was no big concession on their part. Their party's over.

In other news, this interesting tidbit just came out of La Crosse county:

LA CROSSE -- Sometime next year, La Crosse County might let all its female prisoners out of jail.

Instead of sitting behind bars, the women will be in a new community-based program the La Crosse County Board unanimously approved last week.

The board awarded a $250,000 contract to the YWCA to run the program, starting in February.

About 20 to 25 women are in the jail at any one time, supervised around the clock by two jailers at a cost of $420,000 a year, plus other operating expenses.

About 15 of those women would go on electronic home monitoring and into job counseling, literacy training and other programs through the YWCA, said Supervisor Jill Billings. "It 's a better way than locking them up. "

Later next year, the county will lease or buy a halfway house in La Crosse where up to 10 women will live. Those women also would be on electronic home monitoring and in YWCA programming, though they will not be supervised around the clock.

With the women 's jail empty, some male prisoners could temporarily be moved there while cell blocks in the men 's jail are remodeled for the few women who need to be jailed, said County Administrator Steve O 'Malley.

Some supervisors questioned how the county could possibly go without a jail for women.

Supervisor Keith Belzer, a criminal defense attorney, said in 15 years he 's never represented a woman who was put in jail because she 's dangerous.

"I 'm not saying there won 't ever be a woman in La Crosse County who 's dangerous and needs to be locked up for the safety of the community, " said Belzer. "I will say that would be the rare exception rather than the rule. "

Belzer said women are almost always in the system "because of some kind of relationship with a man. "

Getting those women treatment and help will cut recidivism, he said.

This sounds like a great program, and more of the kind of rehabilitation-instead-of-plain-incarceration that we need in our correctional system. There's an irritating vein of sexism inherent in the article itself (Belzer's statements, specifically), but beyond that I wish them all the best and hope that this sort of program becomes more widespread.

Mayors gone wild!

The ever illuminating Illusory Tenant has some choice observations about the Green Bay City Council nativity scene debacle. They note that the Mayor, heeding advice from The Liberty Council, has decided to follow the so-called "plastic reindeer" rule and attempt to make the creche more kosher* by placing "secular" holiday symbols next to it: a Christmas tree and reindeer.

The Liberty Council, it should be noted, is a non-profit "litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family," so it doesn't take much brain power to figure out what their angle and bias might be.

According to a comment in yesterday's post about this whole thing, Mayor Schmitt gave an interview with WPR last night: "When asked if Hindus or Buddhists asked to put up a display there, he said that he wouldn't let them. And he gave the lamest excuse - it's what the community wanted. So, if the community wants the government to give preference to one religion above all others, he has no problem violating the establishment clause."

Seems like a pretty spineless move on the part of the mayor. Not to mention stupid.


*poor choice of words fully intended.

Making the baby Jesus cry

Green Bay is working on making Madison's Christmas VS Holiday tree kerfuffle look positively civil. Last week, Council President Chad Fradette decided that a nativity scene would spruce up the roof of the City Hall nicely and pushed approval of it through a committee that he chairs.

Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, among many others, took issue with the move, rightfully suggesting that it might kinda sorta break that whole "separation of church and state" thing that's, y'know, codified in the Constitution.

Mayor Jim Schmitt tried to diffuse criticisms of the display by allowing "any religious symbols" to be put on the roof alongside the nativity scene, but it would appear that he's now backpedaling and generally wishing that the whole issue would just go away.

From the Green Bay Press Gazette:

The City Council voted Tuesday night to leave [the nativity] in place until Dec. 26, and to impose a moratorium on any other religious display until the City Council and Schmitt could develop a set of guidelines.

The council voted 6-6, with Andy Nicholson, Chad Fradette, Guy Zima, Tom Denys, John Vander Leest and Tom Weber voting to keep it. Mayor Jim Schmitt cast the tie-breaker with a "yes" vote.

A Wiccan display was installed Friday. It is a white five-pointed star encircled by a wreath. Early Monday morning, someone flagged down a police officer to report seeing someone on a ladder at City Hall, taking down the display. The suspect fled, leaving the ladder. Police later found the damaged display in the shrubs.

So basically, because some dimwitted vandal decided to deface the Wiccan display, now no one but the Christians get to have their symbols up there...at least, of course, until after the Christmas holiday has passed. Their excuse about needing to formulate a clear policy would hold more water if they took down the nativity, too, but that's not the case and their little boat is fast heading for a swamping.

I think the argument of a one Sean Ryan sums up the issue nicely:

Ryan, the man who had asked last weekend to display a Festivus pole, patterned after an episode of the TV show "Seinfeld," told the council he did it as a joke, meant to point out that religious displays don't belong at City Hall.

Ryan took exception to statements made by others saying the nativity scene was historical, not merely religious.

"I'm a Christian — don't tell me it's not my religion," Ryan said. "Saying it is not is to question (Jesus's) very greatness … But keep the nativity scene in is place — in churches, in our hearts and our homes."

Regardless of how "great" you personally feel Jesus was, it's a very sound argument and one that I don't understand why the proponents of the move don't seem to understand it. Religion and spirituality should be a private matter, left up to the individual and their chosen congregation(s). Why so many people feel the need to impose their personal choices on others is beyond me. Is their faith so flimsy that they need the external validation? The feeling of power and control over others? Surely that's no kind of faith at all, but rather a deep sense of insecurity and fear.