Monday, April 1, 2013

ON EASTER, GOOGLE HONORS CESAR CHAVEZ





GOOGLE OPTS NOT TO HONOR JESUS ON HOLIEST CHRISTIAN
HOLIDAY FOR OVER ONE BILLION CHRISTIANS WORLD-WIDE

“We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past.”

Madeleine Morgenstern, TheBlaze — Google altered its logo to honor Cesar Chavez on Easter Sunday, using a portrait of the late American labor leader to replace the second “o” in the popular search engine’s name.

Google frequently honors important figures or dates with its popular “doodles,” but the decision to honor Chavez while many around the world were marking Easter sparked an intense reaction from some on social media. The search engine Bing decorated its homepage with Easter eggs.

Still, a search of Google’s past doodles shows they have honored Easter just once in the United States — in 2000 — and tend not to recognize specific religious holidays. While they regularly post special logos for Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Earth Day and other dates, certain doodles tend to be more esoteric.

Google did not immediately return a request for comment from TheBlaze Sunday morning about the decision to pick Chavez over Easter for its logo.

President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day, as he has done in the past, and devoted his weekly address to honoring Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover.

“[W]e remember Cesar Chavez for lending voice to the voiceless,” Obama said. “When no one seemed to care about the invisible farm workers who picked our Nation’s food, beset by poverty and cheated by growers, a courageous man dedicated to dignity stood up and spoke out.”

Update: Google did not respond to a request for comment from TheBlaze but a spokesperson told BuzzFeed: “We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past.” » Full Article

(h/t Twitchy)

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About the Author
Madeleine Morgenstern is an assistant editor at TheBlaze. A graduate of George Washington University with a degree in political science, she got her journalism start at GW's award-winning student newspaper, The Hatchet. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives in Washington, D.C.


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