We’re all familiar with the notion that Seattle is one of the most liberal cities in the nation, so it stands to reason that it might be a major front in the “war on Christmas.” But one local official said, “Hold my egg nog” and won an award for declaring war on Christmas and Hanukkah.
Gloria Ngezaho is the “workforce equity manager” for King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, and he issued “Guidelines for Holiday Decorations for King County Employees” in mid-November. In these guidelines, Ngezaho instructed county employees not to display religious symbols of Christmas or Hanukkah in their workspaces — and even on their computer desktops.
KTTH radio reports that Ngezaho announced that King County “remains committed to honoring the diversity in its workforce and is fortunate to have employees from many diverse backgrounds.” The only trouble is that Ngezaho and the county are less committed to “honoring the diversity” of faithful believers in Christianity and Judaism.
“Before adding any decorations to your workspace (including your virtual workspace), consider the likely effect of such decorations on all of the employees in and outside your work group,” the memo reads.
“Some employees may not share your religion, practice any religion, or share your enthusiasm for holiday decorations. Displays of religious symbols may only be displayed in an employee’s personal workspace. Religious symbols should not be displayed in or as a background to an employee’s virtual workspace,” it continues.
According to the Daily Mail, Ngezaho’s edict even bans religious holiday symbols from showing up behind you on a Zoom call, for crying out loud.
Here’s the thing: if someone is offended by a religious symbol of Hanukkah or Christmas, he or she best not go out anywhere during the holiday season because those symbols are just about everywhere — except where Gloria Ngezaho has authority. Besides, I hate to break it to Ngezaho, but it’s nobody’s business what religious symbols someone displays in his or her home.
For good measure, the memo also bans religious symbols of other faiths, even though those faiths don’t use symbols that anyone associates with the holiday season. Non-sectarian symbols like trees, wreaths, and snowmen are fine as long as they don’t have any sort of religious symbolism attached to them.
Bah humbug, right?
Related: ‘Tis the Season for the War on Christmas
Ngezaho’s Grinchery didn’t go unnoticed. In fact, it won him an award that was worse than a year’s subscription to the Jelly of the Month Club. Ngezaho is this year’s recipient of the Ebenezer Award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
“Religious employees of King County will likely feel like the ransacked residents of Whoville this Christmas and Hanukkah season,” noted Montse Alvarado, COO and executive director of Becket, in a statement. “The government has no right to rob its employees of holiday cheer by forcing them [to] take down their nativity sets and menorahs, particularly in their own homes.”
Ngezaho is in some infamous company. Previous award winners included the American Humanist Association, which tried to ban holiday-themed care packages at schools, and the University of Minnesota, “which two years ago banned from campus holiday colors, Santas, bows, dreidels, and even wrapped presents,” according to the Daily Mail, and even the Department of Veterans Affairs, which barred employees at one facility from giving Christmas wishes to veterans in the hospital.
“This is the time of year that Americans ought to come together in the spirit of Christmas to support one another and spread joy and hope,” Alvarado continued in his statement. “But as always, there are bureaucrats like those in King County that scrub religion out of the holiday season. Let’s hope their hearts grow a few sizes this Christmas.”
Only somewhere like King County would see the need not only to hire a “workforce equity manager” but would also hire a cotton-headed ninny-muggins like Gloria Ngezaho who seeks to drain the true spirit from the holiday season. Shame on him.
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