Posted on 03/08/2014 9:38:16 AM PST by Jacob Kell
There has been so much news lately of schools, organizations, and individuals being harassed by atheist groups, but this one sets a new low. In this case, a grieving mother erected a roadside cross where her son was killed, and now an atheist group has forced her to take it down. What is wrong with these people???
As reported by The Press Enterprise, a roadside cross was erected for 19-year-old Anthony Vincent Devaney who in May 2012 was killed crossing a street.
A complaint prompted the American Humanist Association in Washington, D.C., to intervene, contending the placement of the symbol in the city right-of-way violated the separation of church and state.
(Excerpt) Read more at gopusa.com ...
Anyone remember AQUALANDIA from the 1960s? It was NOT a waterpark but an attempt to claim the ocean as a nation. Joe Pine (How many remember him?) had some people on his show back in 1968 who were really pushing it. They even sang the Aqualandia Anthem.
Maybe it’s just you and me, but free exercise of religion does not entitle one to post memorials on public property. That’s because the posting essentially excludes other uses (including an unobstructed and undistracted view).
Having a tragedy on public property does not confer ownership.
The memorials are no more justified that a “I lost 20 pounds” sign.
But, hey, I’m a conservative, and I realize that conservative principles apply even when it goes contrary to my emotions and personal preference.
They can inherit the Kingdom of Death...
Two planks of wood and a quick paint job and you have a cross. Take down one cross and let the pastors tell there people to plant more as they take them down. Soon that highway will have thousands of crosses.
See 58.
Bingo !
Absolutely disagree. They highlight a dangerous stretch of road. And it is appropriate to remember a place where a loved one died. Gettysburg battlefield is a national park.
I somewhat agree with you (ducking for cover). Although I’ve seen a few Crosses and memorials that are; most of them are hastily put up and usually never maintained afterwards. They often include plastic flowers and teddy bears, even balloons that after a few months in the weather and being subjected to road grime, look both sad and simply awful. They tend to get picked up after a while by the highway crews or the mowing crews or get plowed away after the first big snow storm around here.
On a side note, I would add that every time I see one of the those “In Memory of (fill in the blank) 19xx to 20xx” window etchings or decals, I notice it is nearly always on a rather late model and expensive vehicle; the model year of the vehicle is nearly always same or one or two years later than the person’s death.
So every time I see one, I don’t think, “Wow, that person really misses their loved one”, rather I think, “I’m sorry you died but I bought this really nice car or truck with the insurance money I got – Thanks! (I know that sounds cynical but that’s what I think when I see them). Of course those are on privately owned vehicles so it really doesn’t matter what I think about them and the vehicle owner is perfectly free to put on their vehicle whatever they want as long as it doesn’t conflict with common decency, i.e. convey an obscenity or convey a false identity (Here I am thinking of states that have refused to issue vanity plates that say something like “FBI” or “FedGov” or “DEA” or “IMACOP” for reasons that should be obvious).
Personally I would never think to or go out of my way to complain about one of those roadside or sidewalk memorials or insist they be taken down but then again, I’m not opposed to them being removed when they become an eyesore or impede the mowing crews or become a nuisance to traffic as some of them do. I find it somewhat interesting that I’ve seen traffic on a busy highway slow down to gawk at a newly erected “memorial” where a person died in some sort of traffic accident where as the distraction of erecting such, could in and of itself be the cause of yet another.
OTOH, driving by a Cross placed along the side of the road, even as being a “non-believer” myself (I hate the word Atheist as I hate the Atheist a-holes as much as I do the PC and Liberal crowd); it in no way offends me. If others find faith and comfort in it, I’m certainly not against it.
But FWIW I also used to live in Baltimore City and would see these “memorials” along sidewalks where some punk gang banger popped a cap in the “you know what” of some other punk gang banger (excuse me while I look for my hanky /s).
I also wonder about some of these road side memorials and whether the person who died at that particular spot of the road was the victim of a drunk, speeding, texting or reckless driver or whether the person who died there WAS the drunk, speeding, texting or reckless driver. While most of us assume that the roadside memorial commemorates the death of some sort of innocent victim, it would be wrong to always assume such, as much as it would be wrong to assume that the dead gang banger was “just a good kid”.
Sorry, but the First Amendment trumps what you believe to be in “disgustingly poor taste.” These memorials are not on private property against the will of the land owner, but are on public land. Sometimes they may be at the corner of an intersection or on the side or the road or just off the sidewalk near a home or hospital where someone died or even sometimes near an abortion mill where thousands have been murdered. Again, it is a First Amendment Right.
No it isn’t. The 1st Amendment says nothing of the kind.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Note the word “Congress” – as that word has meaning and is very important. It was intended to prohibit the Federal government from establishing an official national religion or hindering the free exercise of any religion at the national level or in suppressing both an individual’s or that of any state assembly’s political speech, of a free press even when they report things not complimentary to the Federal government. The 1st Amendment says nothing about anyone’s right to put up a roadside or sidewalk side memorials to a dead loved one on public lands or along Federal highways and it says nothing about whether States or local municipalities have to allow them under the 1st Amendment.
Oliviaforever: I would ask you that if you are such a staunch supporter of the 1st Amendment and think that it carries such a broad interpretation as you seemingly think it does, then I guess you would not be opposed to the Atheist family of an Atheist family member putting up a “roadside memorial” that says, “Heaven and God is a Myth” or a roadside memorial that displays Buddhist or Hindu or Rastafarian symbols or a Shrine to the Virgin Mary. Or are you one of those folks who think that the 1st Amendment only applies to and covers what you believe?
“Conservative principles” become nothing when they attempt to raise themselves up over their roots.
“And when the cops eventually came to take me away I’d make sure there were cameras galore to record the event. “
—
Why?
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It’s been put aside until after this muslim (devout) administration has been removed. Not until. AND when the republicans wake up and realize the democrats are at war with our American culture. Until then...we need to put
some strong conservative republicans who can fight the same
kind of fight the democrats fight, except putting the
American culture back in our country.
Seperation of church and state is straight out of the
Communist Manifesto.
Atheism is just a way for the psyche not to go totally insane (I know this is really an oxymoron when talking about atheism, or really a “moronic” idea..), but it is the way for a person’s psyche not to go totally insane when that person is in rebellion to God-and instead of admitting the are accountable to a Holy God, they’d rather ignore the fact so they say they don’t believe in Him with a hard heart. They’d rather live in their sins, rather than believe that He doesn’t hate them, He died for them and wants them to come to Him with a broken Heart for their sins, then a repentance and acceptance of His Grace via the sacrifice that can never be paid back..!
If she erected some kind of memorial—I don’t care if it’s a cross or what—on public property, then it should be taken down.
I see these eyesores all over the place and they don’t belong. Putting flowers or a cross or a pagan symbol or whatever on the side of the road ain’t bringing anybody back from the dead. I wonder what the motivation of the people who put such stuff there really is: maybe “look at poor me I’m so mournful?”
I've given up on trying to figure this one out.
You're right. A true atheist WOULDN'T care.
The fact that they spend ALL of this TIME and energy means that they don't truly have "faith" in their own beliefs.
That's how you can tell a "genuine" atheist or agnostic.
They don't waste their time worrying about God, or worrying about anyone else who does believe in God.
Yes, of course... Gettysburg National Park is no diffrent than highlighting the spot where a drunk driver smashed into a wall or where a gangbanger got popped... whatever... the ill-designed,cheap,faded memorial is eye pollution to me... and another practice that other cultures have brought to this country...
Most are simply left there to rot, along with the trinkets and stuffed animals that were at one time fresh and new.
IMHO, if the family maintains the site in a tasteful manner, no problem.
Kind of like the "adopt a highway" program.
In the Seattle area, the city puts up signs that say "In memory of so and so. Please don't drink and drive".
Much more classy.
That little cross highlights the place where a dangerous stretch of road took a perfectly mannerly person who was caught in a storm and missed the danger in that stretch, it’s the place where a loved one zoned because of fatigue or road hypnotism, it’s the place where one was surprised by a bad driver, by an oncoming headlight on bright. Their loved ones highlight that place with a cross, and believe me, I note those places and they almost always reveal a danger, and some of them a very subtle danger.
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