Posted on 03/10/2005 5:51:34 AM PST by Crackingham
The Mount Soledad cross must go, the San Diego City Council said yesterday.
The 16-year saga of whether the cross would stay on public land in La Jolla came to an emotional conclusion last night as the council voted 5-3 to reject a last-ditch effort to keep it in place.
The vote capped a six-hour public hearing that attracted 350 people, most of them Christians who urged the council to donate the cross and surrounding land to the federal government so it possibly could remain where it has stood since 1954.
But the cross now must be moved to comply with an injunction forbidding its presence on public land. Federal Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. issued the injunction in 1991, when he ruled that the cross violated the state Constitution's guarantee of separation between church and state. Thompson had left it to the city and the lawyers in the case to resolve the matter.
In the latest court decision in the case, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2002 that the constitutional violation still existed when it struck down the city's second attempt to sell the land to a private buyer.
"This is definitely the first page of the final chapter, and I don't expect the final chapter to last another five years," lawyer James McElroy said last night. "I think we are at the end of the line here."
McElroy represents Philip Paulson, one of two atheists who filed the original lawsuit against the city in 1989.
He said attorneys for the city as well as the group that maintains the cross and Paulson will meet soon to finalize plans for when and where to move the cross, which stands 29 feet tall on top of a 5-foot-high base. McElroy said he would call the City Attorney's Office today, and that the cross could be moved within 90 days.
As a San Diego Resident I'm Apalled! I thought we might be the last City with some Moral Sense!
We are at least making a lot more noise now. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is fighting back! This is a group to which I will gladly donate this year. They are fighting the ACLU nation wide and I have to believe that they will start making some headway with our support.
"Tell the 14% to sit down and shut up."I'm part of that 14%.I don't have a problem with the cross,or any religious symbols for that matter,but i certainly have a problem with malcontents who file lawsuits like this.This guy needs a good shrink!BTW,has anyone asked the citizens of San Diego what they think?
Apparently, the thought process of some (or, most?) atheists is: See no God, hear no God, therefore No God. Are they really so simple-minded as that?
Thank you for this alert I didn't know that the dirty ACLU was doing this. I appreciate the links and will make use of them.
We, the citizens of San Diego, want the cross. The city council will let us talk at meetings, but it is the lawyers they listen to. I think the Antiquties Act is a good way to go. At least worth a try. "Duke" Cunningham, hear my call!
We need to recall the entire city council.
Jesus wept.
This makes me so sad. Another example of why the President's judicial nominees are vital to the restoration of our country. We can't continue this insanity much longer before it's too late to undo the damage.
Glad you're onboard.
Pass the word to as many Christians as possible.
A quote from Roger Baldwin, co-founder of the ACLU:
"The fiction that constitutional American rights can be maintained through law has been pretty well exploded. Everywhere the realization is growing that legal rights are hollow shams without political and economic power to enforce them. The road to industrial freedom is the way to all freedom."
Here is a good article: http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive30.htm
That's kind of hard to visualize---"dotted with crosses"---but you're quite right, there are lots of crosses in the Uni+ed S+a+es!
Why can't the city just donate it back to the person who donated it (the land) to the city? Or his heirs? That would get the issue resolved fast, plus gain new tax revenues for the city.
There is more than one way to inflict pain and suffering to the dracula's that retreat from the sign of the cross.
Or ... you can just let them suck your blood.
In either case ... whining isn't the answer.
Bump and ping thanks
Or how about, "Dude"? Paganland would probably be more accurate though.
Now that the city has removed their christian heritage
Why Not Change the City's name?
Maybe they would like San Satan? or San Athiest?
Every Christian curch leader should Call for the congregation to boycott All business within the city Limits
or organise recalls for every City Elected person.
Or better Yet pool their money and build a private park on another Hilltop with an even Bigger and taller Cross and light it up every night and Hold weekly celebrations at the hilltop. in fact they could buy up 10 or twenty high points and set up crosses all over san Diego!!! get in the guiness Book of World records...white crosses everywhere.
every time they take one down...put up ten more..then start painting crosses everywhere like graffiti!!!! and start on all Govt Buildings? and paint crosses on Govt. Vehicles and on the lawns of govt officials.
Take it to the Streets!!!!
go back to the hilltop where the cross was and erect one every year at a different time..do it so much that there is a cross there more times than there is not.!!!!
and put crosses in the front yards of Christian's homes, start a tradition of doing it every Sunday.
Make the athiest God-haters sorry they ever took that cross down.
After they remove all reminders of the loving God they deny, they will STILL feel this guilt and will take aim at something else.
Yes they will start to arrest Christians...and then Kill them That is what the bible says the future holds...
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