A New Hampshire school district superintendent has banned the word “Christmas” from an annual holiday flyer.
Todd Starnes, reporting for FoxNews.com, said that Robert Malay, the school superintendent in Marlborough, New Hampshire said that this year the word “Christmas” should be replaced with “holiday” in the flyer.
John Fletcher is commander of the local American Legion post and distrubutes flyers in public schools promoting the annual Christmas tree lighting, which is sponsored by the American Legion and by the Monadnock Lions Club.
Fletcher was very unhappy with Malay’s edict. “I was very upset, I really was,” he said.
Fletcher even wrote a letter to the Sentinel Source, Marlborough, New Hampshire's local newspaper.
In the letter Fletcher states, “As commander of the American Legion it offends me,” he wrote. “I respect all rights; always have. But do not take away our rights because you may offend someone else.”
Fletcher followed Malay’s directive, but in a way that showed he disapproved of it. He and his wife blotted out the word “Christmas” with whiteout, but they did not use the word “holiday.”
Other residents of Marlborough share Fletcher’s concern.
“If they can’t call Christmas, Christmas, I wonder what the school district will call Ramadan or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa?” Starnes asks.
Photo courtesy: flickr.com
Publication date: December 2, 2015