The latest victim of this...

Have I told you lately...? That the ACLU is out of control!!!!

Here is it's latest victim:

LA County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich issued this statement in reponse to the ACLU's letter threatening legal action to force removal of the cross from the official seal:

“Your May 19th letter concerning Los Angeles County was right out of a George Orwell novel. Your failure to understand the history and to rewrite it from the so-called political correctness follows the hate of past book burners.

The history of Los Angeles County dates to the 1700s when Father Serra built a mission, named after Saint Gabriel, in the San Gabriel Valley. This was followed a few years later when members of the church walked twelve miles to today’s Olvera Street to build the pueblo. Later, the mission in San Fernando was built.

Los Angeles was named “the Angels” and names from the Bible have been used to name cities and streets. In 1850, Los Angeles County was incorporated by the State of California, and later, the City of Los Angeles became our first city.

The cross on our County seal reflects these historical facts. It does not mean that we are all Roman Catholic or that everyone who resides in our County is a Christian – it only reflects our historical roots. Rewriting our historical roots is, to use an analogy, like eating a sandwich wrapped in a paper bag – it loses its taste.”

Also, figured prominently on the County seal is Pomona, the mythical Roman goddess of fruit. “Regarding a pagan goddess on the County’s seal, the ACLU’s silence is deafening,” said Antonovich.

At first, I was so pleased to find out there was a sensible person in charge--someone who refused to be bullied by the ACLU's antics. But alas there are three other supervisors who do not share this opinion and now this...

The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday reached a tentative agreement with Los Angeles County government to replace a historic cross on the county seal with depictions of a Spanish mission and Native Americans.

The details of the agreement, along with the actual design of the replacement symbols, was still being worked out Wednesday.

"We think this is a great development," ACLU spokesman Tenoch Flores said. "The county has offered something that will be more inclusive and representative for the residents of the county."

Fortunately, there do seem to be some voices of reason involved:

Meanwhile, four legal foundations and public interest law groups on Wednesday offered to foot the bill if the county supervisors instead decide to engage in a legal fight with the ACLU of Southern California, a battle experts say could cost millions of dollars and wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We have reviewed the Los Angeles County seal and have concluded that the seal is certainly defensible under current legal precedent," wrote Gary S. McCaleb, senior counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based public interest law group.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that (government) seals or displays must be sanitized of all religious symbolism. To do so would ignore the important and unique contribution of religion to American culture and society."

Of course let me not forget to mention that this will cost California millions of dollars we don't have.

If you are a Cali resident or a reasonable citizen anywhere who recognizes that the ACLU is anti-Christian and pro-every other religion and want to voice your opinion on that, here is the contact info:

Michael D. Antonovich 213-974-5555 email
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke 213-974-2222 email
Don Knabe 213-974-4444 email
Gloria Molina 213-974-4111 email
Zev Yaroslavsky 213-974-3333 email

And just in case anyone's forgotten:

1st Amendment

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.

Update: I just received this reply from Knabe:

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the County Seal.

Supervisor Knabe supports the current County Seal and supports keeping
the cross on the Seal and he voted to protect it yesterday.

It was Supervisor Knabe's motion which would have reiterated the Board's
support for the seal and directed legal counsel to begin preparations to
protect and defend the seal against any frivolous litigation brought
against the County by the ACLU. Unfortunately, a majority of members of
the Board of Supervisors felt that the Seal should be changed as a
result of the pressure from the ACLU.

Supervisor Knabe feels passionately about keeping the historic County
Seal the way it was designed. He and his colleague, Supervisor
Antonovich, voted to maintain the Seal and have been outspoken in their
support.

Thank you for your comments on this issue.

Other bloggers on this...
Aruguing with signposts... LA County Caves In
Christian Conservative... Our Culture War
*** Dave... Sealed and delivered
mansizedtarget... War Against History
Obnoxious Fumes... ACLU loves religon... unless it's Christianity
Pardon My English... LA County Caves to ACLU Nazis
ProfessorBainbridge.com... Los Angeles Succumbs to ACLU War on Religion in the Public Square
The Southern California Law Blog... LA County Votes to Remove Cross from County Seal

Comments

[Moze]

There they go again, the ACLU has got another lip-lock on the first amendment. Certainly, it’s not an overt grope. Neither LA County nor the ACLU are Congress, and any kind of agreement they might strike about the County seal probably wouldn’t qualify as a “law.” Nevertheless, this is clearly an attack on the free exercise of religion. I’m pleased that Knabe and Anotovich voted to keep the seal intact. But it looks like a done deal—or at least like another shameless back-seat hickey in the making.

Cheers,

[alysa]

Cross? What cross? I don't see a cr - oh wait, now I see it.

[Tony Rosen]

"1st Amendment

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."

Funny, I read that as ONLY Congress shall make no law ... latidatidah ...

It doesn't say you can't recognize historical truths of origin.

[Moze]

“…historical truths of origin.”

According to whom? Clearly not the person who designed the seal. To be sure, this is not about “historical truths of origin.” To argue there is a better representation of Southern California history than the Cross is not only disingenuous, it’s wrong.

This issue arose out of the fact that the person who designed the seal included a Cross, a symbol of Christianity, and the ACLU has a hard-on for Christianity—not religion generally, just Christianity. If the ACLU had objected to “religion,” they would have pressured LA County to remove not only the Cross, but also Pomona (pagan), and the Bull (Hindu). Of course there is another symbol of Christianity in the seal, but apparently the ACLU stooges who pressed this issue are so secularist that they can’t see it. Further, there is a symbol in the seal that is quasi-religious, but, again, the ACLU doesn’t seem too concerned about that either.

The ACLU is eating the Elephant that is the US Constitution one bite at a time. Yea, the first amendment says, “Congress shall make no law…” And you’re right, there’s nothing in the first amendment to prohibit an ACLU objection to a Cross on a California County seal, which makes this a ‘Why does a dog lick his nuts?’ proposition—the fact that you can do something doesn’t make it a good idea... Unless, of course, your design is to immerse the USA in secularism.

Cheers,

[Tony Rosen]

Which is what I said ... I'm just not as long winded while I'm at work reading these things .. LOL

[Pat]

This is rich! Fortunately we do not (yet) have these discussions here in Germany. The only argument we had at the courts lately were about crosses on the wall in public school's classroom
and the wearing of Head-scarves for female Muslim teachers.
The first one is still going in circles, but many Germans would agree, that a cross may not be the right decoration in the classroom of a state financed public school. Funny enough that the cross became much more visible in those classrooms where it was take away, because the place behind the cross over the years has been brighter than the rest of the wall and schools usually denied instant painting of the walls for budgetary reasons.
As to Muslim scarves, the rule is clear: they are not a simple religious expression like waering a cross or a star of david on your jacket or on a chain, but they do also have a demeaning conotation in reference to femal rights and thus have been banised from schools, if state law rules so.

I'll try to feed in some information crumbs from good old Europe, now and then....

Cheerio

[Amy]

You know, if they're going to get rid of a cross that's simply a reference to history, then they should probably erase all reference to religion in the history books too. All religions, since that's what the law specifies. Hey, suddenly there's not much left in the history books, what do you know!

[tallglassofmilk]

Well, Amy, I hate to be the one to tell you, but they've already begun...

Education researcher says textbooks being rewritten to exclude role of religion in American

[tallglassofmilk]

More proof...

Ben Shapiro: Brainwashed : How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth