So If I'm Reading correctly, The Federal Government Just Bought A 29-Foot Cross?

[badstar]

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060814-115849-6832r.htm

President Bush signed a bill yesterday transferring ownership by eminent domain of a 29-foot cross overlooking San Diego from the city to the federal government.


Well, the obvious solution to this argument...to me anyway...is to put up 29-foot symbols of all the other relgions of fallen soldiers, as well as atheism. And each time a new religion is accounted for, a new symbol goes up.

Obviously they're not getting rid of it, millions pof people will argue why they shouldn't...so just jam everyone else in there. It's a 170 acre stretch of land, they've got plenty of space. Heck, there could even be a special little memorial prayer garden for every religion.

Everybody wins.

Comments

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

The laws against government establishing religion are hardly served by the government establishing a whole bunch of them.

[saratoga80.livejournal.com]

This has to do with a historic marker, called the Mt. Soledad memorial. It's been there since 1954, adn an atheist vet sued to take it down. In 1991, he won the suit in federal court, ensuing yet another court fight. However, the federal goernment can designate what land it wants to, invoking its primacy of federal government principle.

This is the citizens to save Mt. Soledad's take on it:
http://savesoledad.com/sbcc/personalinfo.php?page=biography

While I would normally concr with Renee, and we should include all such markers, this has more to do with a bitter man's individual gripe turned into a court pursuit. This is very likely, now that it is in federal purview, to go to the Supreme Court, which had previously said it had no authority to review what was a local matter.

And as to leiacat's commentary, the first part of Ammendment 1 of the Bill of Rights reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

In its original intent, many founding fathers wanted to avoid the establishment of a "Church of America" such as there was a "Church of England". After all, many Puritans, Catholics, Jews and others fled to America for the right to exercise religion of choice. Therein lies the battle: What is establishment, and what is abridging free exercise? In a nation where 95% of people express some faith, be it Christian, pagan, Jewish or otherwise, i would deem it impossible to remove all religious references from public land and law.

More recently, when the Supreme Court issued a split ruling on public land (this is paraphrasing), it rejected the use of ten commandments on public land, because it implied Judeo-Christian dominance of the law. However, as part of a "historical public monument", a religious reference on public land is fine. I suspet they will use that precedent to decide on Soledad. Is the cross a historical item, or is it unlawful establishment?

[psyilax.livejournal.com]

cross is a symbol for the earth-- fitting for the dead :)

[pagandenma.livejournal.com]

Sorry folks, if ONLY a cross - and the Christian one at that - is there, then it's a religiously oriented thing and not a war monument. It isn't only Christians who die in wars, as statistics show.

Unless they add other religious symbols, this is a violation of the church/state separation.

You want a good example of a religion-neutral war memorial, go look at the Vietnam Wall. Simple, stark, chilling and very powerful, with no specific religious symbols.

[pagandenma.livejournal.com]

Meant to add this snippet - according to stats being collected on Iraq casualties, almost 10% of the casualties over there have been PAGAN. At last count, according to a military Pagan I know, 237 Pagans/Neopagans had perished. One example to show the diversity of casualties . . .

[bitchiekittie.livejournal.com]

I was reading just today about all the ways which the hollywood sign has been altered (often by unauthorized means) to celebrate various occasions or ideas. I wonder what one could do to a cross to merry it up a bit?