Posted on 09/10/2004 7:39:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES - A redesigned Los Angeles County seal, minus a tiny gold cross, is drawing praise from the American Civil Liberties Union and scorn from those who thought the design was fine the way it was, cross and all. The redesign's most dramatic change is the replacement of the goddess Pomona in the large center panel with a Native American woman. But the most controversial was the new image of the San Gabriel Mission - pictured without a cross on the roof - and the removal of the cross.
The rendition of the seal goes before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for approval, three months after three members of the board voted to remove the cross after the ACLU threatened to sue over the symbol. The potential new seal, drawn by a county graphic artist, was released Wednesday.
County supervisors Michael D. Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley, and Don Knabe, the two Republicans on the board, opposed the removal of the cross. County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen predicted the change in seal would cost just under $1 million.
"It's a shame that the county has to spend this money when it should be better spent on public safety, parks and libraries," said Tony Bell, Antonovich's spokesman. "We are confident the people of Los Angeles County will not be pleased with this new seal. … The depiction of the San Gabriel Mission is a joke - that drawing is no mission; there's no cross. The San Gabriel Mission clearly has a cross, no matter how you look at it. It's an architectural fact."
"This effort was really an appeasement of a left-wing radical organization that's looking to rewrite history."
But ACLU attorney Ben Wizner praised the new seal.
"As far as we were concerned, they could have satisfied their legal obligation by simply removing the cross," he said. "But they went a step further and tried to devise a symbol that would really reflect the diversity of the county."
David R. Hernandez, a San Fernando Valley resident who is organizing a signature-gathering effort to keep the design of the old seal, disagreed.
"The new proposed seal is a waste of time, money, and more importantly, depicts a barefoot, subservient Native American, which is an insult to all people of color," Hernandez said. "It is a slap in the face of the Native American culture and historical contributions of the missions of California."
Hernandez's group said it will have new petitions available for download by Tuesday at www.ourfirstamendment.org. Voters will have until March 1 to collect 341,212 valid signatures to force the Board of Supervisors to reinstate the old seal or call a special election to decide the seal's fate.
The missions are part of our history...but they're trying to re-write that, too.
AFTER all of the money is wasted with new seals evertwhere, then I want to see another lawsuit for religious reasons and see what happens then.
"F" the ACLU
He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past. George Orwell
(The County seal was designed by former Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, drawn by Millard Sheets, and adopted by the Board of Supervisors January 2, 1957 effective March 1, 1957.)
Maybe the cross just represents the view from inside the Hollywood Bowl. If you sit in the Bowl seats towards the back, you see the stage area (those semi-circles in the design), and directly above it you see the stars in the sky and that giant cross on the hill facing the Caheunga Pass.
In a world where we have real life problems that affect all of us such as terrorism and natural disasters it is so important that our leaders have game plans designed to most adequately allocate resources in the most effective and efficient manner to serve as many as needed including those who might otherwise fall between the cracks and not get service. Now more than ever in our history being faced with these huge scale events so close together that it is highly important that our leaders spend there complete attention towards remedying or preparing for future similar disasters. Yet to allow a rogue group such as the ACLU to find fault in an official county seal and to even be granted any credence at all is a sin. The ACLU must be above the rest of us if they have time to worry about the depiction of a cross on the seal. Keep in mind that it was Christianity that brought the pilgrims here in 1492 in the first place as a refuge to have freedom of religion. The ACLU's claims are not strong enough that they deserve the attention they have gotten. Wise up ACLU, no one really wants you in the picture in the first place and furthermore, since when have you ever helped a disabled white male who has been victim of discrimination in the workplace or other deserving individuals in similar situations. PLease stop bothering the Board of Supervisors and go back to picking up aluminum cans on the beach at low tide where you all came from initially anyway.
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