CNN reports:

Driving along a pockmarked road amid rocks and Joshua trees in a lonely southern California desert, religious controversy might be the last thing you’d expect to encounter.
A judge ruled the Mojave Cross must be covered until a First Amendment issue can be resolved.

A judge ruled the Mojave Cross must be covered until a First Amendment issue can be resolved.

And if you don’t look too closely, you’re likely to zip right past the focus of a hotly contested Supreme Court battle.

A federal judge has ordered the Mojave Cross, a war memorial erected by a veterans group 75 years ago, to be covered. It’s boxed in plywood.

Here’s the history of how the cross got there.

Riley Bembry, who served as a medic in World War I, helped erect the cross in 1934. It sits on a 4,000-foot plateau and was a place of reflection for many vets who retreated to the desert in part to recover from severe lung diseases caused by mustard gas attacks during the Great War. An annual Easter service is held there, but until recently only locals knew about it. The site is not on any maps. Video Watch a video about the Mojave monument »

Bembry never got permission from the government to erect the cross, but for decades nobody seemed to care. He was the caretaker of the memorial for five decades until he died in 1984.

In 1994, 1.6 million acres of desert — including the land with the cross on it — was transferred to the National Park Service. A few years later, a resident wanted to put up a Buddhist shrine near the cross. The request was denied.

And now this asshole files a lawsuit.

Frank Buono, a former deputy superintendent of the preserve, filed a lawsuit with the help of the ACLU, claiming federal officials were acting unfairly.

Technically, the federal officials are being unfair. And if some guy wanted to build a cross there today, then the bureaucrats should deny that request. But this cross has been there for decades and has taken on special meaning. Furthermore, its literally in the middle of nowhere. For me this is good reason why it should be kept up. If this was a Buddhist site commemorating those that died in WW1 and some christian filed lawsuit to take it down, I would call them an asshole to. Pissing all over a 70 year old non state sanctioned war memorial because you can’t have your monument built makes you an asshole, regardless of your religion.

This is one of those things were you have the wisdom to not make a big deal because you realize its significance is more important than you petty quibble. Somethings you just let roll off your back.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.