'Tis the Season To Be Controversial

If you haven't heard about this by now, it's a wonder. The city of Green Bay is embroiled (as in the fires of perdition) in a controversy over which displays of the holiday season can be featured on public property. It all began when the president of the city council donated and erected a nativity scene on the roof of the entrance to City Hall. The ensuing brouhaha included a Wiccan pentagram being put up under the guise of equal rights and subsequently, under the cover of darkness, torn down by vandals (who left the ladder...they'l be the ones whose Christmas lights are still on the roof in July!)and at least six other individuals claiming the right to put up their own symbols. Finally, the city council voted 7-6 (with the mayor breaking a tie) that ONLY the nativity scene could be there for public viewing. However, the day after Christmas...BAM! it comes down. The public outcry has included an editorial from the local paper decrying the trashing of the Constitution which precludes ANY combination of church and state. This has GOT to make CNN soon. In a related note, only one of the council members even has a nativity scene as part of his home decorations...odd. I refuse to wear my Christmas tie in protest of these shenanigans. Anyway, that's more controversial, perhaps, but no more amazing than the rash of Santa assaults lately!
In Spokane, Washington, the firemen put on an annual parade of sorts where the guys dress up like Santa and deliver gifts out of the back of trucks. This year, Kevin Smith got smacked by a thrown object! He was knocked unconscious and suffered head injuries, black eyes, etc. No suspects are in mind, but the Mariners would like to talk to the individual.
In Rio de Janeiro, a Santa using a helicopter to fly gifts to kids in the ghettos was fired at! Two rifle trounds hit the copter, and Santa flew back to the North Pole. Theory? Drug gangs who thought it was the cops. Yeah, I'm going to Rio sometime soon...NOT! (statistically, in Rio there are 50 homicides a year per 100,000 people in the population. You do the math and book your ticket to Mardi Gras there).
However, the mall Santa in Danbury, Connecticut, provides the most interesting story. It seems that this guy who is 65 years old was playing mall Santa, and a 33-year-old woman hopped on his lap and "groped" him...in front of all the kids waiting in line! No word if she waited around for the picture, but she was apprehended sometime later. Apparently, there were not too many middle-aged women on crutches in the mall that day.
I say we skip Christmas this year and head right to Easter, though I am still wondering what SIX groups there are in Green Bay who have a Christmas symbol...Christians, pagans, Wiccans, Jewish folks...that's all I can think of...