Marker is dropped off at City Hall

The Winston-Salem Journal ^ | 1-20-03 | Victoria Cherrie and Theo Helm

[RepublicanLady]

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 Marker is dropped off at City Hall Robinson says he didn't know procedure to get a permit to put it there

By Victoria Cherrie and Theo Helm JOURNAL REPORTERS

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City Council Member Vernon Robinson told reporters that he bought the granite marker with his own money. A four-man crew placed it at City Hall about 7 a.m. (Journal Photo by Ted Richardson)

On a day when most of the city was celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, City Council Member Vernon Robinson was illegally putting up a 1-ton granite marker inscribed with the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights in front of City Hall.

"He doesn't have the right to put it there," City Attorney Ron Seeber said.

The appropriate process for anyone to put a permanent marker on city property is to petition the council for approval, he said.

"Obviously if you are going to do something like this, this is not the right way to do it," Mayor Allen Joines said. "We are working hard to bring the city together. Actions like this tend to push people apart."

Robinson - who was elected to the city council in 1997 and is running for the Republican nomination for the 5th Congressional District - said he didn't get permission to put up the 4-foot granite marker because he didn't know the procedure.

Although he admitted that he has had the idea since October, he said he couldn't find out what the procedure was because of "timing," declining to explain further.

Robinson also said that his announcement was not intended to clash with King Day celebrations. He defended his decision to act when city hall was closed, saying that he wanted the presentation to be a "surprise to the city and citizens of Winston-Salem."

Robinson said that his idea for the marker came from a conversation with Roy Moore, the former chief justice of Alabama. Moore was ousted as chief justice last November after repeatedly refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

Robinson had asked the city council in September to consider a resolution requesting that Mayor Allen Joines offer to have the Alabama monument shipped to Winston-Salem and displayed here at the expense of private donors.

No one on the council responded.

Robinson said he then decided to pay $2,000 for his own marker. David Maynard, a local Baptist preacher and monument dealer, arranged a contract for the marker, which was made in Georgia.

Maynard said that he and Robinson decided last week to put up the marker yesterday. It was unloaded about 7 a.m. by a four-man crew in order to avoid "all the hustle and bustle around city hall," he said. It also was easier to unload when the parking lot was empty, Maynard said.

The Ten Commandments are inscribed on the side facing Main Street. An abbreviated version of the Bill of Rights is inscribed on the side facing City Hall.

Below the Ten Commandments is an inscription that says: "A project of Councilman Vernon Robinson, January 2004."

Robinson said he believes that the marker is constitutional because it is not publicly funded or overtly religious.

"This monument is not an effort to proselytize; it is a history lesson," he said. "Atheists may complain about history, but the words are still history."

Others took a dim view.

"I'm afraid my colleague has neglected to read the Second Commandment," Council Member Dan Besse said. "He has made himself a graven image to political ambition."

Robinson is known for making flamboyant statements. He also has been criticized by other city-council members for using his seat as a campaign pulpit.

"A lot of people might think it's cute for him to voice his opinions," said Council Member Fred Terry. "But what he's doing is using the public's time to politic for his own views. The city is not the place to do that."

William Van Alstyne, a Duke University professor of constitutional law, said he didn't think that the marker would stand a constitutional test.

The first four commandments are "utterly religious," he said, and the fact that the marker is privately financed does not make it constitutional.

"It's merely meant to be provocative," Van Alstyne said. "I can't conceivably imagine it would be allowed to stand."

The city's staff will decide this morning whether it will take down the marker or whether Robinson will be asked to remove it, said Lee Garrity, the assistant city manager for public safety.

Robinson said in a statement that if the council voted to "make me take it away, then I'll do it."

[ConservativeGadfly]

Yes, I do believe he would have done this regardless of his run for Congress. His political career is decorated with all kinds of guerrilla marketing.

Even without the guerrilla marketing he has consistently stood up for conservative values -- standing up against the homosexual lobby to stop them from defunding the Boy Scouts, consistently offering conservative alternative budgets to the drunken sailor spending sprees they pass every year in Winston Salem. Most of all, he has stood as a stalwart conservative -- as the lone conservative -- against every other member of that city council.

Now. You don't like this, fine. But don't pretend you know Vernon's motivations for this. Particularly when you have clearly never bothered to look beyond the Winston Salem Journal's characterization of him.

Go ahead and continue to swallow the nice, non-threatening, ordinary little talking points from the Republican Party, RepublicanLady. I, for one, am going to go for the conservative everytime. We have enough RINOS in Congress from NC who are afraid of their own shadow to last us a lifetime. I want things shaken up.

[RepublicanLady]

OK. That's your opinion.

[conservativegadfly1]

There is no procedure. Robinson was not quoted saying that. The reporter paraphrased Robinson saying he didn't know the procedure after Robinson mocked the reporter for assuming there was a building permit procedure or something comparable. There is no statute, ordinance, or resolution that contemplates the erection of a monument on city property in Winston-Salem. Robinson put it up and said to his peers on the city council, I hope you'll vote to accept it -- if not, let me know and I'll come get it.

[conservativegadfly1]

Not original? Moore, Keyes, Vision America, etc. have all called on every elected official to put up his own Ten Commandments monument. What is this law you claim he broke? If you have no idea what you're talking about, perhaps you should do more listening.