At Davenport City Hall, phones have been ringing non-stop for the past few days. \u00a0The calls are from people around the country, voicing their opinions surrounding the city’s observance of \u00a0Good Friday.<\/p>\n
It all started last Friday, when the city manager sent out a routine holiday closure notice to all city offices. The city manager says the notice accidentally referred to Good Friday, April 2, as “Spring holiday,” implying a name change for how the city observes the Christian holiday.<\/p>\n
The words “Spring holiday” did not go unnoticed, prompting the local newspaper to report it over the weekend — right before the start of\u00a0Holy Week.<\/p>\n
Davenport City Council member Bill Edmond says no one on the city council had any warning about it… and was blindsided by the whole situation.<\/p>\n
Edmond says his email inbox is jammed with emails from people from coast to coast, “some of them are saying, you’re a bunch of Communists for changing the name and we’re never going to visit Davenport. Others say we think that’s the right thing to do and most, 98% in the middle, saying thank God you went back to calling it Good Friday.”<\/p>\n
Turns out the city never did or never plans to change the name Good Friday to be called anything else. Any change would first require a full vote by the city council. Davenport’s city manager, Craig Malin, takes full responsibility for the mess up calling it a “communication failure.”<\/p>\n
So… how did this all start? Last May, Davenport’s Civil Rights Commission sent a letter to the city suggesting the city rename the “Good Friday” holiday to reflect the diversity of the community and because the Commission (a committee made up of 7 volunteers) felt it violated the separation of church and state. The city council never addressed it.<\/p>\n
As the Easter weekend approaches, council member Bill Edmond says it’s time for everyone to move on,\u00a0“I don’t want to see Davenport have their image tarnished over something that was obviously a mistake from the get go.”<\/p>\n
Hear from both sides involved in the report below…. and watch our next report live from Davenport, Iowa at 1:45 pm EST, on Fox News Channel.<\/p>\n