'Holiday Tree' Comes Home To Roost
In the hometown of WPRO talk show host and EG resident John DePetro, the tree lighting at Town Hall was called "holiday tree lighting" on the town's calendar.
The very tall evergreen on the lawn in front of East Greenwich Town Hall came alive Thursday night in the town's annual tree-lighting ceremony – with help from Santa, who arrived via fire truck and flipped the switch.
Was this a Christmas Tree lighting? Not according to the notation on the town's calendar, which referred to a "holiday tree lighting" at 4:30 Thursday, Nov. 29. As of Thursday evening, it was not known who was responsible for the listing.
Contacted after the fact, EG resident and WPRO talk radio personality John DePetro said, "If Santa is there, it is a Christmas tree lighting."
There were no protests.
DePetro made a big issue last year over the decision by Gov. Lincoln Chafee's office to call the tree that adorns the State House rotonda a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree." The controversy was re-ignited this year after Chafee's office first said there would be no tree lighting, then said there would be. The tree was lit Thursday with little advance notice.
DePetro has lodged this complaint against Chafee inspite of the fact that former Gov. Donald Carcieri (himself a product and longtime resident of East Greenwich) also referred to the "holiday tree" in the State House tree-lighting invitation sent out in 2010.
Bob Plain – yes, another EG resident – has been taking it to John DePetro for beating up on Chafee. Yesterday, he got an exclusive interview with the governor (who lives in Potowomut!) right after State House tree lighting.
“I’ve been surprised there hasn’t been more respect for our history here,” he told Plain. “There hasn’t been that intellectual discussion about that in Rhode Island about these concepts that are now several centuries old.”
Town Council President Michael Isaacs was on hand for Thursday night's tree lighting in East Greenwich, as he has been since he was first elected eight years ago. Isaacs is Jewish, but he sees no reason not to call the tree a Christmas tree.
"My feeling has always been that the strength of our country has been the diversity of our population, of our religions, so I think the Christmas tree should be called a Christmas tree," said Isaacs.
"It is a Christmas tree," he reiterated.
Isaacs spoke at the tree lighting ceremony as a representative of the Town Council, he said. The event, while held on Town property, is put on by the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street merchants.
DePetro said there must have been a mix up with the name: "I am sure it was an oversight. The people of East Greenwich will light the Christmas tree."
Alan Weiss, PhD
8:16 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
With a massive anti-business environment, high unemployment, young people forced to leave the state, high state taxes, corruption in our legislature, and a crumbling infrastructure, THIS is what we're concerned about? I don't need a governor to validate what is obviously a Christmas tree. We all celebrate (or don't) in our own ways. But I do need a governor who has some ideas and initiatives for positive change. If he can do that, he can call a tree whatever he wants to call it. So far, I haven't seen any semblance of that leadership.
Jen C.
8:16 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
Our country and state were founded upon the belief that we don't all have to believe and do the same things but that we can accept others right to believe and say what they feel. We may not agree or do the same things but a mutual respect for others freedom to be different from us is key to how we were founded. It is not a Holiday Tree, it is a Christmas Tree, it is not a Candle Stick, it is a Menorah.
Jim Iezzi
8:35 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
Please don't comment on this article. This is an obvious attempt to inflame readers, not to inform them. A quote from Jeremiah Wright?
Annmarie
10:32 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
I highly doubt this was written to enflame readers. It seems its just reporting happenings from the evenings events. People need to turn their "hot buttons" off and move on. Your comment probably flickered mine more than the article did. If more people just agreed to disagree.....one can only dream
Jim Iezzi
8:20 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
If this article was just reporting the evenings events Ann Marie, then why drag Depetro (who I would never defend) Plain, and the former Governor into it? Notice the article has changed too. I understand municipalities reasoning for calling it a Holiday Tree and I think Depetro needs to give it a rest. But why bring him into the fold if he isn't even involved?
Bill Pett
3:16 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012
The article--not inflammatory. John DePetro--inflammatory. He's trying to make trouble over nothing, but of course that's how he makes his living.
george farrelly
3:33 pm on Saturday, December 1, 2012
Depetro is nothing more than a self promotor who will use any issue to beef up his ratings. Just a Rush wannabe
Kerry Joyce
5:38 pm on Sunday, December 2, 2012
A tree lighting, a holiday tree lighting, a Christmas tree lighting. They're all the same thing. A Christmas tree is just a more specific name for a holiday tree. There is no harm in the Governor calling the state house tree a holiday tree out of respect for separation of church and state and in consideration of the good many people for whom this is also a holiday season but don't celebrate Christmas. I remember going to the home of a friend as a third grader and he had what he called a "Hanukkah tree." You can go out and buy a tree and call it whatever you want. I call mine a Christmas tree. Last year DePetro took his anger parade on the road with a bunch of other militant Christmas Tree huggers to the State House and sang "Oh Christmas Tree" in the spirit of "We Shall Overcome." Too funny. In the original "O Tannenbaum," the title translated is "O Fir Tree." I was at the State House to watch my daughter perform with her school strings group and as we waited, Randall Rosenbaum, Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Exectuive Director informed the small gathering of mostly parents that in a few minutes the governor was going to light the "holiday tree." Nobody thought anything of it. This a manufactured issue from the likes of that fraud, John DePetro, who disgraces his country by how he depicts liberalism but mostly by how he represents conservatism. With friends like John DePetro screeching to the choir, Republicans are going nowhere.