 An atheist activist forced Chicago to change its Christmas tree recycling program, complaining it was unfair to non-Christians. The city wanted to bolster its Blue Bag recycling program by offering a years worth of blue bags and some mulch to anyone who turned in a used Christmas tree. But Rob Sherman, known for his campaign to keep crosses off city seals, protested to Chicago, insisting the trees-for-bags exchange unfairly benefits Christians, the Chicago Tribune reported. "The concern was that the city had constructed a well-intentioned program, but the effect was that only Christians had the opportunity to participate," Sherman told the paper. "Christians had the opportunity to receive the blue bags for free. Atheists and others would have had to pay."
| Simple enough. Buy yourself a non-Christmas white pine and... Oh. Wait. You'd have to pay for it, wouldn't you? Like the Christians did for their Christmas trees... |
Responding to Sherman, the city now will allow anyone to get the blue bags if they bring in a large bag of recyclable material. The city will now offer blue bags to anyone who visits one of 22 tree-recycling locations on Jan. 8 and brings a large bag of recyclable material. "We'd prefer the tree, but we're willing to permit that. We've always been flexible," streets and sanitation spokesman Matt Smith told the Tribune. "The main thing is that we want people to recycle, and we want to keep these trees out of the waste stream."
| "Complaining atheists are free to bring a bag of poop..." |
Sherman, of suburban Buffalo Grove, doesn't live in Chicago, but he called the city's law department on behalf of a Chicago resident. He told the Chicago paper that at one point he was told he could receive the blue bags if he brought in someone else's tree. "Atheists shouldn't have to go begging from home to home for a Christian who will sponsor them into this kind of government program," he said.
While some argue that many non-Christians put up trees for the holidays, Sherman insists it's predominantly Christians who participate. "No self-respecting atheist or Jew or Hindu puts up a Christmas tree in their home unless they are Christian wannabes," he said. Sherman led a campaign to remove crosses from the municipal seals of the Illinois cities of Zion and Rolling Meadows.
| I'm surprised he hasn't gotten around to complaining about the name "Zion" yet. Give him time. |
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