the controversial ornament 

2008

U.S. Representative Jim McDermott represents the 7th Congressional District in Washington State. A physician, McDermott is especially active in health care reform issues. He developed the Washington Basic Health Plan, the first in the country to provide low-cost health insurance to the unemployed and working poor.

Women's right to vote

On November 8, 1910, the male voters of Washington State voted nearly 2-1 to amend the state constitution, extending the right to vote to Washington WOMEN.

The lively history of Washington State includes many instances of progressive change. That's why I am proud to live here.
           -- Deborah Lawrence 2008

Sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle, the massive protest represented an alliance of hundreds of labor unions community, environmental and political organizations in support of Fair Trade.

On November 30, 1999, 40,000 to 100,000 peaceful demonstrators took to the Seattle streets in protest of nonstop globalization at the World Trade Organization's conference at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

McDermott was attacked for predicting that no WMDs would be found in Iraq, and he was correct. McDermott signed onto a resolution for impeachment of the President. He said "America cannot regain its moral leadership in the world if America cannot hold its leaders accountable for their actions at home… Without accountability, a Democracy will fail." (Source: McDermott official website)

ornament photos by Les Sterling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2008, Deborah F. Lawrence dared to mention the word "impeachment" on an ornament she made at Laura Bush's invitation for the White House Christmas Tree. American artists were assigned to represent their state or congressional district in red, white and blue. Lawrence felt that the color scheme politicized Christmas. She chose to decorate her ornament with text that profiled her U.S. Congressional Representative, Jim McDermott, who had just signed a resolution to impeach the President.

Lawrence's friends donated money to help her travel to the nation's capital for the White House artists' reception. A columnist at the Washington Post leaked the "impeachment ornament" story on the day of the reception, under the headline "Christmas Colors for the White House: Red, White and Impeach.". The ornament was abruptly removed from the tree. The artist was called a "publicity whore," among other unprintable epithets, and was accused of sullying Christmas and disrespecting the President. She was also declared "World's Second-Best Person" by Keith Olbermann on Countdown, MSNBC. Lawrence and her ornament appeared in Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post, et al. Over 300 newspapers and media outlets picked up the story, along with 297,000 blog postings. According to tradition, the ornament, along with hundreds of others, is destined to be archived in the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.

  
 

see the new
2009 ornament
   

press

Seatte Post-Intelligencer
12/03/08

Huffington Post
12/02/08

Washington Post
12/02/08