Thursday, June 22, 2006 | Mike Aguirre is leading a wise path for us – to save money by not incurring a fine, to save court time in accepting its final decision, and in showing the city and the world that we practice what we preach here. This is a multicultural world, a multicultural city and state, and to exalt one religion above all others is rude and unconstitutional.
I propose replacing that controversial image with an eternal flame – which could be seen for miles, offends no one, favors no religion, and clearly symbolizes the ephemeral nature of the human spirit.
Let the Christians worship their own idol on their own property, not keep insisting it be placed above everyone else. Since religious groups already pay no property tax on allegedly religious property, they are already getting away with preferential treatment from the city and county.
Let them be happy to have their alleged spirit within themselves, and choose a way to honor war dead without displaying obvious religious preference. I’m sure there were relatives of six million Jews who would have preferred another symbol than that adopted by the pope and Hitler. Remember this is the same church which taught that the sun rotated around the earth, denied the dinosaurs, hosted an inquisition, and believed that slavery was legal and profitable.
Let us choose now to remove this blatantly religious symbolism and “render unto Caesar” that which is his – taxes, property responsibility and rights, and respect for the law and its judgment. We demand that illegal aliens respect our laws and cooperate with them, and Christians should back off and do the same now that the judge has repeated himself and threatened us with a fine.