CROSSED

You would think after all this time people would get that the good ol' USA! USA! USA! is supposed to be for err buddy, and the gubment supposed tah stay out of stuff like sex and free speech and religion and stuff unless the issue is dire. Instead, the Supreme Court is taking its valuable time to consider arguments about a wooden cross stuck in some dusty remote desert 70-some years ago. The problem is not really is that there is some religious symbol on display; it is that it is on land owned by the National Park Service since a transfer in 1994.

Sigh. People people people. It never ends.

I am going to take a position that you would think I would not, as a hardline atheist and frowner-upon-crazy-religious-oppression-stuff kind of girl: I say leave the cross where it is. When it was first erected, the cross and its caretakers had no agenda other than to honor and comfort some veterans. It was not an effort to convince coyotes to come to the Lord or have heathen lizards repent, just a tiny little monument that any Christian gassed-out WWI survivors might like to groove on. This does not offend me at all, and it is just pissy behavior to mess with it, even with the technicalities NOW of having the cross on federal land, which I'm sure wasn't on anyone's minds in 1934. It was never intended to be a government-sanctioned memorial or to "advance religion" and everyone KNOWS that. At this point it has more value as a historical item than a symbol of Christianity anyway.

But urine-leaker Frank Buono had to complain anyway, so now Salazar v. Buono goes to DEE CEE. The courts of this land are so schizophrenic when dealing with the separation of church and state, which makes it nearly impossible to predict from case-to-case what will happen. When you have a country that largely identifies itself as Christian, it is a tough fight to remember the folks here that worship differently or don't worship at all. Gubment turned down a Buddhist shrine next to the Mohave Cross. This will rile folks, you know, even though it was surely just a test case, not some genuine effort to provide Buddhists with their very own 120-degree hell spot to meditate at. Hey, I could offer to set up a canning jar with nothing but air in it for the now-dead WWI vets to ponder upon -- The Atheist's Memorial -- with all good intentions and sincerity and I bet I would get turned down too. There's just no consistency, and I doubt there ever will be. America is not really 100% behind the separation issue. No one wants to piss off God, you know, not even a a judge or two.

So with that, something must be done. There is legitimate value in retaining the cross as a piece of national history, so bust out a bronze plaque telling the story, including the court fight. That isn't promoting Christianity. It is telling all of us here something about some of the rest of us here, reminding us of a sad outcome from a terrible and costly war, and the inconsistencies of democracy, and the pointless fighting we all are guilty of doing. The law so often forgets common sense, which is terribly difficult to legislate and enforce. There shouldn't have to be a land transfer, and I just don't think Frank Buono was within his rights here, as he has proven no significant or lasting injury. What he did do was advance religion, by giving the Mohave Cross worldwide attention and the political support of every religious-right nutball out there. Good going, dinkwad.

This kind of stuff drives me mental.