Posted on 01/23/2004 12:33:09 AM PST by risk
Posted on Monday, November 25 @ 09:54:07 PST
Swap could save cross
by Chuck Mueller
Memorial in peril on Mojave preserve
Congress may take up legislation in January that could end the constitutional battle over the Veterans Memorial Cross in the Mojave National Preserve.
The measure would allow the transfer of national preserve land, where the cross stands, to the California Veterans Home in Barstow.
A comprehensive public lands bill that included the proposal was postponed this month when Congress recessed, and was again delayed when legislators returned to Washington after the fall elections, said Jim Specht, spokesman for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands.
"We will make every effort so this legislation will be considered early next year,' Specht said.
Lewis plans to talk with Rep. James Hanson, R-Utah, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, about the issue involving the cross.
"(Lewis) will ask him to bring it back in early January,' Specht said. "We hope the measure will be approved then.'
The Comprehensive Natural Resources Protection Act, which contains about 100 bills, would allow the federal government to give one acre and the cross to the California Veterans Home in Barstow.
In exchange, the government would accept five acres of private land, owned by Henry and Wanda Sandoz of Mountain Pass, Specht said.
"My husband came up with the idea of exchanging our land,' Wanda Sandoz said. "We would do anything in our power to keep the cross there.'
Originally erected in 1934 by Death Valley Veterans of Foreign Wars, the cross commemorates veterans who fought in World War I.
Death Valley Veterans of Foreign Wars raised the cross in 1934 to honor and remember veterans of World War I.
"A good friend of ours, World War I veteran Riley Bemdry, helped erect the wooden cross,' Wanda Sandoz said. "He asked Henry if he would help look after it.'
After vandals tore down the original cross, Henry Sandoz kept his word to his friend and put up a second one in 1974.
"It was torn down several times over the years, and Henry kept replacing it,' Wanda Sandoz said. "The last time, in 1996, he put in a cross made of pipe, placed in a concrete base. It still stands.'
The cross is the focus of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which contends that the display of the cross on federal land violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
The 6-foot-high cross stands atop a granite outcropping on Cima Road, about 15 miles south of Interstate 15. The site is 80 miles east of Barstow.
U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin, sitting in Riverside, ordered the cross removed from the national preserve in July, but set no time frame for taking it down.
Lewis said the cross is a historic landmark that serves as a memorial to all veterans, and does not represent establishment of religion.
Many veterans have expressed outrage over Timlin's ruling.
Korean War veteran Bill Jackson, 73, who lives at the Veterans Home in Barstow, said, "I want to see the ACLU go to all the national cemeteries where our service men and women are buried and cut out all the crosses and stars of David from brass plaques over that hallowed ground.'
World War II veteran Donald Julius, 80, said, That cross is not a religious symbol. It honors our war dead.'
But ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg said the controversy is "a clear-cut First Amendment issue.
"The cross, a fundamental symbol of one religion, is offensive to non-Christian veterans who fought in the war.'
But Henry and Wanda Sandoz, residents of Mountain Pass for four decades, are standing their ground.
"Along with our veterans, everyone who lives out here wants to keep the cross in the desert,' Wanda Sandoz said. "I hope the ACLU accepts our land exchange. I know they're determined to take it down, but we're just as determined to keep it there.'
Copyright © 2002 San Bernardino County Sun
WASHINGTON – Congressman Jerry Lewis Friday urged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to seek ways to preserve a cross erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars more than 60 years ago in what is now the Mojave National Preserve. The cross, which commemorates the sacrifice made by those who died in World War I, is under legal attack by the American Civil Liberties Union because it is now on federal land.
"This cross stands in silent memorial those who gave their lives to defend our country and freedom around the world, and it has been a community gathering place for those who live in the Mojave Desert for six decades," said Lewis, whose district includes the preserve. "This is not a situation where the federal government is promoting religion. What is at issue here is whether we will continue to honor the memory of those who died for our nation."
If this is taxes with reprsentation
Give me taxes without representation
I much prefer a tax on tea!
Instead of everything else.
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