I live in the "Town that Banned Santa." What happen was something like this. Every year in Kensington the town has Christmas Tree lighting at the town hall. About fifty people come. This year two Jewish families asked the city to include a menorah. The City Council said no, because the menorah was religious. Still wanting a menorah the Jewish families said, "Well isn't Santa Claus religious?" The Council thought about this and said "Ok, instead of having Santa light the tree we will have a Fire Fighter, a Letter Carrier, and a Police Officer push the button to light the tree."

The two Jewish families said they still wanted a menorah, and finally the council said Ok, you can have a menorah, but by then the families said that they didn't have time to get an appropriate menorah. Five days before the Sunday tree lighting some news reporters started doing stories saying that Jews got the town to ban Santa. The story was carried by news media around the world. The Jewish families got death threats and asked for police protection. At least one member of the Town Council got a death threat. The Mayor tried to slow the uproar by announcing Friday that Santa was welcome at the tree lighting. The righteous defenders of Santa Claus ignored her. Sunday 1,000 people appear at the tree lighting. One man had a sign that said "If Jews can ban Santa, why can't we ban Jews?" My veneer of civilized behavior disappeared for a moment. I cheered when a teenager grabbed the sign

The night before the tree lighting four women organized a candlelight gathering at the train station "to show that during this holiday season Kensington is united in support of all religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds." In my role as a local minister they asked me to speak for twenty seconds. More than three hundred of the 1,873 residents of Kensington showed up. I said "The Kensington community welcomes Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and people of other religions. Kensington is a wonderful community. Let us all look forward to a more peaceful and inclusive tree lighting ceremony next year."

Many people are feeling angry these days and are hungry for someone to fight. The first week of December, as a target for their anger, a few pick the town I live in and some of my neighbors. It was misplaced anger. The people in Kensington are good people who did not deserve to be attacked. Thank goodness the anger was only expressed with words.