Hollin wins the final memorializing showdown and Gotto does not know when to leave well enough alone

A few weeks after conservatives CMs Phil Claiborn and Jim Gotto (a Republican) took down CM Jamie Hollin's attempt to honor some high school students who organized protest against the General Assembly's "Don't Say Gay" bill, Hollin struck back at his last meeting as CM tonight and won approval for the memorializing resolution.

Even this evening, Gotto got up to speak against the resolution based on the pitch that memorializing resolutions should not identify controversies with particular groups. He equated it with bringing MRs supporting the Tea Party. That is a rather convenient argument for the Republican to make given that in previous years he has sponsored MRs that express preference for parochial groups in controversial settings.

In 2009, CM Gotto joined other theologically conservative CMs and co-sponsored an MR endorsing the National Day of Prayer, which is an event promoted by a national evangelical Christian organization. Gotto's resolution promoted a sectarian group's agenda for wedding governance and religious observance. Anyone who maintains that religion is not controversial has never engaged in discussions about religion.

In happier times saving Christmas
for Christians
with memorializing resolutions

In 2005, CM Gotto co-sponsored the "Saving Christmas" memorializing resolution which "affirmed and supported the use of the words Christmas or Merry Christmas, instead of non-descript, generic terms such as Happy Holidays ... when referring to Metro Government events or activities traditionally associated with Christmas, such as the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony". Not only is the annual "war on Christmas" debate controversial, but it is often sensationalistic and designed to get press coverage. The same week that Gotto's MR was approved by the council, Gotto gathered with conservative talk-radio host Steve Gill to celebrate passage of the resolution in front of Metro's tree and voracious news media.

So, for Jim Gotto to oppose CM Hollin's resolution honoring some students because they stood up for GLBT is sanctimonious and cynical, especially given the context that council conservatives set for opposition to Metro's nondiscrimination regulations on contractors: nondiscrimination would burden "Christian business."

To deepen the hypocrisy, CM Gotto announced earlier tonight that he could not "in good faith" vote for Hollin's MR. However, he once proclaimed that memorializing resolutions in general were a waste of time and  not worth the paper they were written on. If these bills are worthless, then debating them is meaningless and there is not faith, good or bad, that would ever prompt us to consider them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Crisismas

Many Nashvillians would prefer the joy of the season overcome memories of May flood crisis. However, as long as there is an election campaign coming to town, the Mayor's Office will not deviate from its appointed rounds of jogging local memories of May with shameless holiday greetings in December. Above all the bustle you hear:

The prettiest sight to see is the flood line that will be on your own front door!

Faith and Ethics Reporter Did Not Follow Through As Promised

[A]bout the pagan roots of Christian traditions, I have done this story in every market I've worked. I'll get to it here. It's only November.

- - WKRN Faith and Ethics VJ Jamey Tucker (11/2006)

At the risk of being accused of "shooting the messenger" again, I should point out that News 2 reporter Jamey Tucker did not make good on his word to do a story on the pagan roots of Christmas like the one he did on the pagan roots of Halloween. His failure to do so supports my contention that his reporting is not balanced, but promotional in a conservative evangelical manner. I guess gathering all of those celebrities to read the Christmas Eve bible devotional on air ate up the time that would have allowed Tucker to be fair.

Update: Jamey Tucker is getting started early on slanted stories in 2007. In a separate story, the News 2 VJ reported on local response to U.S. Representative and Muslim Keith Ellison's swearing in. The problem is that Tucker only interviewed a lone Pentecostal pastor, as if Pentecostals themselves did not "raise eyebrows" even among other Christians. More details for Free after the jump.

Twelfth Night is On Us and No Christmas Warriors Are Left

I noticed yesterday as I drove past the Courthouse that Metro took down the Public Square Christmas Tree. I would like to take this opportunity to note the total vacuum of criticism on the conservative side of the culture war. Remember how social conservatives pitched a fit that the "word" Christmas was under attack (cue the black helicopters)? Remember their outcry last year when "Christmas" got called "Holy Day" "Holiday"?

Well, where is all of that outcry and kowtowed media attention now that Metro is not observing the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas? This is historically a time of feasting and celebration in an observance older than the habit of putting up an evergreen. Classically, Christmas is not over until Epiphany, which recalls the visit of the Three Wise Men. Yet, where is all of the protest about taking down the tree before Twelfth Night has ended?

The Metro Christmas Tree was nothing more than a de facto "Holiday Tree" because it was taken down before Twelfth Night (and that does not threaten me in the least; the things of Caesar belong to Caesar). But the social conservatives in Nashville who once groaned that we were losing the "reason for the season" because of superficial labels are now silent, which indicates to me that their bluster had more to do with political opportunism, superfluous semantics, and whipping up emotions and less to do with a sincere faith in the Spirit of Christmas.

As for me, my trees and lights and garland will stay up until Epiphany morning breaks this weekend. It just seems the Christian thing to do. Why celebrate the "reason for the season" without seeing the season to its end?

An Alternative Story on Muslims and Klansmen

Like News 2 before it, NewsChannel5 has joined the Christmas Wars over Phil Bredesen's choice of personal (as in "unofficial") Christmas cards. Details after the jump. In his latest interview, pastor Maury Davis again links Islam and the Ku Klux Klan and he demands cultural purity from Bredesen's personal choice.

However, one comment that Davis made hit me:

If on Martin Luther King day you sent a picture of a Klansman and said, "Martin Luther had a dream that this guy would one day get along with the people he is trying to kill," I'm not sure that the African American community would handle that very well.

That comment in particular called to mind a miraculous story told by Will Campbell; it is an impossible possibility that might not ever haunt the ungraceful mind of Maury Davis.

From Forty Acres and a Goat:

Word circulated among the black prison population [in Danbury, Connecticut] that the Grand Dragon of the [North Carolina] Ku Klux Klan [J.R. "Bob" Jones] was there [after being convicted of contempt of Congress]. Further word had it that he wouldn't be there long because he would be dead in the yard. A mutual friend [of Campbell's] in New Jersey, Pete Young, knew a Black Muslim minister who had members and numerous contacts at Danbury .... The word then became that if anything happened to Bob Jones while he was in prison, the one responsible would have to answer to Muslim justice. Jones continued in good heath, his best friend in prison a Black Muslim. Mysterious ways ....

A few years later Pete Young's house caught on fire .... His wife, their three-year-old daughter, and his wife's mother were killed. Pete lay in critical condition from burns he received when he tried frantically to save them. Pete was a Protestant. They were Catholic .... [The funeral had] twenty-four pallbearers. At the front of the line was the former Grand Dragon .... Beside him was his Muslim prisonmate.

While Rev. Davis--an ex-con himself--sees a world at cultural war, Rev. Campbell tells us a story of truce and of the laying aside the issue of cultural purity for the sake of a closer fellowship. Which one would Martin Luther King, Jr.--or, I daresay, Jesus--prefer?

News 2 Can't Let Go of Them Christmas Wars

The latest after the jump.

Convoluted Reporter Logic

[T]here's nothing Christian or even religious about the Christmas tree. Is there? Its roots are in paganism. A tree is nothing more than a traditional Christmas symbol.

- - Jamey Tucker

Where did WKRN's Faith and Ethics Reporter ever get the notion that evergreen-decking pagans were not religious? And what kind of convoluted logic is it for the same reporter to say that a Christmas Tree is devoid of Christian reference, when a whole culture war is being waged around him over calling it a Christmas Tree?

It would be one thing if any old garden-variety reporter had these lapses in logic about the admittedly difficult subject of religion, but this is WKRN's "Religion" Reporter: the guy who is supposed to have a firm handle on this subject.

Oh *!%|#~+ Tree!

As you can see from the picture (of Christmas lights being hung by Christmas workers on top of a Christmas cherry picker), Metro is in the process of ignoring my opinion and putting up a tree again this year (although this time in the Public Square). It just cottons more controversy than it does good will, holiday cheer, or peace on earth. Thanks to Steve Gill and his bitter little elves on the Metro Council (who are not even satisfied that most council meeting opening prayers end with some variant of "in the name of our Lord Jesus"), the season of Christmas has become just another channel of resentment about a perceived lack of entitlement.

I don't know if Steve and the elves are planning another caroling spleen-vent around the tree this year (I doubt we'll see them at the Mayor's lighting ceremony next week), but if they are, then they'll need a little history lesson on the pagan, wassailing, and waiting roots of caroling. If they're going to try again to be puritanical about Christmas, then they cannot in good conscience go caroling.


Update: While I am somewhat disappointed that the Mayor put the tree up again this year, I do have to hand it to him. He gave the Christmas finger to the bitter council elves last year by sending their "Saving Christmas" resolution back to them unsigned on December 30.

"Christmas" is the Latest in PC Jargon

News 2's Jamey Tucker is at it again. He must get his news feeds from here.

I should renew my vow made last year to overtip each "Happy Holiday" I get; and this year, if I ever find myself in Wal-Mart (odds aren't good) and an employee wishes me a "Happy Holiday," they may find a five-spot tucked in their palm as I pass by.

With the mainstream media pot-stirrers like Tucker in full and rapid rotation, I expect the conservatives on the Metro Council will be saucing themselves up. Before they do, I hope that they reconsider my suggestion that they find a truly yuletide name, instead of the rather PC "Metro Council." (BTW, is it okay for me to use the word "yuletide"? Or is it just too far from the term "Christ" to qualify as a Christmas term?)

News 2 Reporter Starts Holiday Christmas Weihnachts Season Early

Remember last year's big much-ado-about-nothing involving the two words: "Holiday" vs. "Christmas?" Well, WKRN Reporter Jamey Tucker, whom I've never accused of having too much objectivity in his reporting, is not waiting until after Thanksgiving to stir that pot once again by bringing us a story of tree-naming all of the way from the land of beer and cheese. (Heck; he didn't even wait until after Halloween).

Why are culture warriors and these supposedly "mainstream" media reporters so opposed to the term "Holiday," which has a thoroughly Christian etymology dating back to very Christian 14th Century England (halig "holy" + dæg "day")? Given the Christian freight of both words, there is no theological difference between "Holiday" or "Christmas," regardless of the threat that Tucker imagines to his faith.

The irony in Tucker's rather glib response to the Milwaukee story is that the etymology of the word "Christmas" itself is not Protestant: the word derives from "the Mass of Christ." Since Protestants do not have "Mass," then calling the tree a Christmas Tree would exclude a major cross-section of the denominational spectrum outside of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. (And I don't even favor extending Tucker's flawed logic of semantic purity to the word "Christmas" itself. I like and I use the word. I'm just not obsessed with it).

And what of the etymology of the term "Christmas Tree"? That term first appeared in America in the early 19th Century as a translation of the German Weihnachtsbaum, which literally means "Sanctified or Consecrated Night Tree." So, why not choose "Weihnachtsbaum" or "Consecrated Night Tree" over "Christmas Tree"? We already have purity-run-wild in the culture war over "Holiday" vs. "Christmas," so why stop with a term, like "Christmas," which does not precisely fit the way that Protestants actually worship Christ?

The culture warriors really can ruin the spirit of Christmas with a lot of posturing that eventually has little to do with how people actually celebrate the season in their homes. I personally hope that Metro does not put up a tree at all in Riverfront Park this year. It will save us from listening to axes ground by the more strident among us. Do away with Metro's tree and we do away with the whole debate. I wouldn't miss it for a single minute.

Harold Ford Further Vindicates My Choice To Take My Vote Away

First, Harold Ford refused to protect our civil liberties. Lately, he just keeps moving further and further toward the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party. Can anyone explain to me how he is a Democrat in anything but name only? (Ford's "Faith Night at the Polls" is pictured to the left--I finally gave up waiting for him to get there after about 40 minutes because I had to be at home with my family and, like all bad Christian parents, let my child participate in profane pagan rituals. This being " [Christian] Faith Night" I did wonder why I did not see any of the "Save-Christmas-from-Being-a-Holiday" Metro Council Members present).

Metro Council Members Remain Mum on Kay Brooks Vote

Last Thursday I sent the following e-mail to the 3 Council Members who represent me--Ludye Wallace, Buck Dozier, and Adam Dread--concerning their yes-votes for Kay Brooks last week:

I am one of your constituents, past president of Salemtown Neighbors, and writer and editor for the weblog Enclave ... which focuses on issues and problems facing North Nashville neighborhoods.

I was troubled to see that yours was among the 18 votes that appointed Kay Brooks to the open school board seat this past Tuesday night. As has been now publicized, Ms. Brooks has no experience with and only the slightest connection to public schools. Could you please explain how you reached the decision (including your reasons) to vote for rather than against Ms. Brooks rather than voting for a more qualified candidate?

I am further troubled by the indications floating around in the media that one or more of your fellow council members put the 18 votes together behind closed doors and out of site of the public. This was an important vote that affects your constituents, yet I am unaware of any attempts you or others made to publicize either your support of or discussions about Ms. Brooks that occurred in the days preceding the vote. I read in today's [May 17] Tennessean that one council member acknowledged that 15 to 18 votes were lined up by May 10 without publicity and that another council member has admitted that spoke with "several" members before the vote. Could you please explain why you did not publicize your inclinations about Ms. Brooks as they were developing? Also, why did you not consult your constituents on this matter after the papers were filed on Ms. Brooks the Thursday preceding the vote?

You should know that I will be publishing your responses to this e-mail on Enclave for the benefit of North End residents. I will also inform my readers should you choose not to respond, and I will draw my own editorial conclusions from that choice.

After 5 days, still no response.

While living two years in Ludye Wallace's district, I've learned to set my expectations low on his responsiveness to his constituents. Our consolation is that he is term-limited and it is only a matter of time before we are free from his tired, neglectful ways. As for Adam Dread, I've said it before and I'll say it again: my two votes for him were mistakes and I'll definitely be voting against him the next time around. He's gone from defensiveness at any hint of criticism to ignoring all criticism. It appears to me that Ludye and Dread both so bonded with the Council conserva-tive bloc during December's Steve Gill Sing-a-long to Save Christmas that they just seem to be included now whenever the group gathers to put votes together outside of public meetings (in the December picture above, Ludye and Dread are surrounded by fellow members Parker Toler, Jim Gotto, Randy Foster, and Michael Craddock, all of whom voted for Kay Brooks in May). In fairness to Buck, I did not see him at the December carolling rally, but I'll never get a response from him unless I join the business bloc of contributors to his mayoral campaign.

It's Christmas in April in the General Assembly

The General Assembly is currently considering a bill "to affirm and support the use of the words 'Christmas' and 'Merry Christmas' when referring to events or activities traditionally associated with Christmas." Parts of this monumental-waste-of-time resolution seem fairly benign: for instance, in the "WHEREAS" that says "the vast majority of Americans are not offended by the use of the words 'Christmas' and 'Merry Chritmas,' but rather give and receive love, hope, comfort, and joy [background vocals repeat, "comfort and joy"]." However, sponsors of the bill have overplayed their hand by adding "WHEREAS's" like "according to a recently completed survey 90% of Americans consider themselves Christian" and "this General Assembly states that it affirms and supports the use of the words 'Christmas' and 'Merry Christmas' instead of non-descript, general terms such as 'Happy Holidays.'" This resolution is nothing but a mean-spirited, undiplomatic, piggy-back pander to the theo-cons, as if the very existence of Christmas hung in the balance over a stupid resolution in the Tennessee lege.

Thanks for affirming "Merry Christmas," guys and gals. I do have to hand it to you. You artfully dodge the overtly theological supremacy of Jesus by watering his status from "Lord and savior" to an "extraordinary life ... [that] profoundly impacted ... the United States." By my calculations, that places him on par with Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. and a host of other very fallible and very mortal human beings. Your resolution basically dumbs down centuries of Christian theology in the name of saving a word or two. Now how about solving some of the state's real problems? And I want to be the first to wish an early "Happy Holidays" to you all.

The Real Culprits Whom Culture Warriors Should Blame For Taking "Christ" Out of "Christmas"

Here are the unusual suspects:

• White Christmas
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
• The Christmas Song ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ...")
• Let It Snow!

According to Harold Meyerson, these humongously popular Christmas songs reflected a trend among songwriters in the 1940s to assert common national holidays stripped of sectarian content. In particular, Irving Berlin, a Jew married to an Irish Catholic raising nominally Protestant children, started the cultural shift away from Christian-only Christmas to a "cosmopolitan, American" Christmas with his composition of White Christmas. Meyerson argues that the more inclusive Christmas has predominated for 60 years, until Fox News started its crusade to dismantle that sense of Christmas.

Almost all of these songs explicitly wish us "Merry Christmas" without reference to "Happy Holidays," yet they all embody the anti-sectarian thrust of choosing the word "holiday" over "Christmas," which local yokels like Eric Crafton and Steve Gill so hate. Another stark contrast: while contemporary demagogues suggest that American Christians are somehow persecuted because of the naming of a tree, Irving Berlin actually experienced real persecution in Czarist Russia, thanks to brutal pogroms generated by Christians. His response? To write Christmas songs that people of all faiths and of no faith could join together to sing.

12/28/2005, 5:00 p.m. Update: As you can surmise from the links section, Nathan Moore--who has always struck me in his blogging as more devoted to the almighty dollar than to almighty divinity (what with his making nonmoral capital a virtue and all)--thinks he has taken me to task for merely pointing out that the defenders of Christmas (God help us if those are the best defenders we Christians have) have mistargeted. He calls it "writhing three days after Christmas" and he insists that my "liberal" logic fails to see the "Christ" in these "Christmas" songs. Given that neither Jesus Christ nor his adoration is ever mentioned in these obviously secular songs or in the songwriters' original intents, his point breaks apart on its own. Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" is no more about Jesus Christ than Hecht's "After Christmas White Sale" is. All Nathan had to do was recite Berlin's lyrics in his head to see the common sense of that. And I proceeded to question the purity of Nathan's conservativism in his comments section if he does not understand that, according to the ages-old Christian calendar, Christmas does not end until "Twelfth Night," which is January 5 (hence, the "Twelve Days of Christmas"). Is it me or is it actually Nathan who fails to see the Christ in Christmas? After all, he thinks that the holy season of remembrance of Jesus's birth is over just because he has unwrapped the last gift and eaten the last sausage ball. But above all one wonders: if this is such a "non-war on Christmas" as Nathan argues, then why is he still attempting to join the fray?

Leave It To S-townWife To Cut Right Through The Nonsense

After watching Channel 4's very gullible 10:00 report of this morning's Steve Gill/Metro Council Caroling Stunt at Riverfront, S-townWife turned to me and asked, "If they are so pro-Christmas, how come they needed sheet music and can't sing Christmas carols by heart?" Priceless.

Christmas Could Not Buy This Kind Of Publicity

As part of their ongoing service of sticking a finger in Mayor Bill Purcell's eye, Metro Council members gathered at Riverfront Park this morning fresh from Tuesday night's "Saving Christmas" resolution victory in order to have their own alternative tree ceremony.

It's always good to see carolers at Christmas. This morning at about 10:10, Metro Council members positioned the mainstream TV news media and gathered to sing Christmas carols in front of the Holiday Christmas tree at Riverfront Park.


You can see how much media was there to cover a group of carolers downtown. They seemed to outnumber "the public," which today's Nashville City Paper reported would be there, too. I was a little surprised to see a lot of back-slapping and banter between the TV media, Council members, and conservative radio celebrity Steve Gill, who was one of the organizers of the little fleece party (Steve is in the red fleece).


There seemed more Council members present than any other interest group. Here you see a few. My Council member, Ludye Wallace, is even there in the black hat. It's nice to see that Ludye has time to join his buddies for this Christmas variety show. He doesn't seem to be able to find time to attend neighborhood meetings of his own constituents or to answer the letters I send him regularly on various issues affecting the neighborhood. Is that Adam Dread with the burberry scarf? I wonder if he'll be attending church service on Christmas morning; I believe that all of the golf courses will be closed.


Steve Gill in his element: at the center of full, transfixed mainstream media attention. He usually ends up at the business end of a camera.





The group opened up with the song, "O Christmas Tree," which is more an homage to evergreens than a song about Jesus Christ. That does not seem to fit the whole "reason for the season" mantra.


One of "the public" being interviewed. And I heard him exclaim as I strode out of sight, "I heard this promoted on Steve Gill's Show, so I knew it'd be right."

Metro Council "Christmas" Party To Fall in January

I just finished reading John Spragens's piece in this week's Nashville Scene on the Council's gyrations and jeremiads on Christmas against a background of Sammy Davis, Jr.'s (who was Jewish) version of The Christmas Song, which ends with the line,

Although it's been said many times, many ways, "Merry Christmas to you. Happy holidays, everyone."

Aside from savoring the irony of my background music, I gather that Spragens is trying to show the confusion that has resulted from the various names picked for the party Metro Council holds each year around about this time to celebrate the season:

When Jewish Vice Mayor Ronnie Steine was hosting, it was a holiday party. Then, the ever-inoffensive [current Vice Mayor, Howard] Gentry took over, and things got innovative. Two years ago, the event was billed, awkwardly enough, as a “Holiday Council Christmas Party.” The next year, it was a “holiday party” at the Adventure Science Center. This year, it was to be the Council Christmas Party. Unfortunately, it’s been postponed until January 2006. Does New Year’s offend anyone?

Ostensibly, Spragens may be right to put the derangement of having a "Council Christmas Party" after New Years.

But hold on a minute. Those Christians with a profound sense of tradition already know of the 12 days of Christmas. One or two local bloggers understand it. According to the Christian Liturgical Year, there are 12 days of Christian peace and good will that extend to January 5, which is traditionally a day of feasting. That's the day all decorations come down at my house. If the "Council Christmas Party" is held on or before January 5, there is no contradiction in having a Christmas Party in January. If it is held after Epiphany, however, it would be in bad taste, and not in keeping with Council member Eric Crafton's wish to keep Christmas pure from any taint.

There is always a slim chance that the Council members understand the 12 days of Christmas. But my guess is that the 22 co-sponsors of the resolution that saved Christmas on Tuesday night wouldn't know a liturgical year from the hole in the ground at Riverfront Park that will be left when the Holiday Christmas Tree is uprooted and pulverized to make mulch for the trails at Radnor Lake.

Dreaming Of A Pure Christmas

Black Santa and Mrs. Claus want to pass along their gratitude to the Metro Council members who overwhelmingly voice-voted to save Christmas in Nashville tonight because, as resolution co-sponsor Eric Crafton put it in his 9:45 speech in Council Chambers, "We aren't going to take it anymore." They nodded with approval when Crafton said, "I am tired .... of being held hostage to political correctness," and they didn't think that his comment was at all exaggeration, because they trust that Mr. Crafton has some firsthand knowledge of what literally being held hostage is like. They hissed and booed Vice Mayor Howard Gentry when he gaveled the Council to order after the other 21 resolution co-sponsors spontaneously gave Mr. Crafton an ovation after reading his prepared manuscript.

The couple's hearts are warmed that the Metro Council has secured traditional cultural purity in Nashville from the mongrelizing of Christmas by the rest of those uppity holidays. They won't tell anybody that the Council's resolution is non-binding; so, at least the perception that Christmas is saved still holds.

The Baby Jesus's Own Representatives On The Metro Council

Here are the Council members sponsoring the resolution to "affirm" Merry Christmas against all of those liberal attacks. Will we see these faces in our houses of worship on Christmas Day in the morning and into Epiphany?

Cue The Hallelujah Chorus: Metro Council Ready To Be The Savior Of Christmas

Bruce Barry over at PiTW provides the text of the "Saving Christmas" resolution to be introduced at tonight's Metro Council meeting:

WHEREAS, Jesus Christ is an actual man who was born over 2,000 years ago, as recorded by history;
WHEREAS, Jesus' life and teachings were and are so extraordinary that they have profoundly impacted the entire world, especially the United States of America; and.... WHEREAS, ninety percent of Americans consider themselves Christians, according to a recently completed national survey; and
WHEREAS, the modern world's calendar is categorized into two major sections: B.C. - before Christ's birth, and A.D. - after Christ's birth; and
WHEREAS, the vast majority of Americans are not offended by use of the words Christmas and Merry Christmas, but rather give and receive love, hope, comfort and joy to and from one another by using those words....
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY:
Section 1. That the Metropolitan County Council hereby goes on record as affirming and supporting the use of the words Christmas or Merry Christmas, instead of non-descript, generic terms such as Happy Holidays, Winter Festival, and the like, when referring to Metro Government events or activities traditionally associated with Christmas.

Why stop there? I have a suggestion for a second resolution that would compliment the first one very nicely:

WHEREAS, "Fa-la-la-la-laaaah, La-la la la" was actually written in and recorded by history as part of the Christmas carol, "Deck the Halls," and
WHEREAS, the Metro Council is now the official sponsor of Christmas, and the Metro Council Chambers has some halls, and Council members are not afraid to "don their gay apparel" on Tuesday nights, regardless of the proximity of any lesser holiday
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY:
Section 1-&-1/2. That the Metropolitan County Council hereby goes on record as supporting the change of its own name to "Fa-la-la-la-laaaah, La-la la la," instead of non-descript, generic terms such as "Metropolitan County Council," "Metro Council," and the like when referring to that representative body who this Christmas exhibits a messiah complex.