Federal Judge Orders Removal of San Diego Hilltop Vets' Cross

Initially, yes, they tried to sell 222 sqare feet. In the final legal sale, what the buyer intended to do with the cross was not considered in the evaluation process. This was all ruled to be legal. It seems like the city could have removed the cross and turned around and sold it to the association for a couple of bucks after the fact and probably have been ok. I'm sure somebody would have a problem with the city selling crosses for profit though. They should have set it by the curb and then the association guys could have swiped it before the garbage truck showed up to dot all their i's and cross their t's.

 

the city officials turned the thing in to a charlie foxtrot by trying to scam people with the sale of the small area the cross is on, which would be avoiding the spririt of the law, and basically keeping the cross on the public land with a goofy technicality that the tiny area under it was private. the intent of the city officilas is clear, they want to do whatever they can to favor the cross and still get by legally.

if i was on the city council there i would just have them replace the cross with an awesome statue of a soldier or something, problem solved. they could have done that first and saved themselves a ton of legal BSing and finagling and time and money wasted.

those dern christians. they think the own the whole durn country!

 

I don't doubt their ultimate goal, but when they laid out the terms of the second sale, they gave up their ability to control whether the cross stayed or was removed. If somebody coughed up $1 million and stuck a french flag in a pile of doodoo on top of the mountain, I guess it would have been ok, as long it was done as a war memorial. The highest bidder should have won. The court has struck another blow to the free market!:cuss:

 

the link thing points out that if you require the sale to go to peeps who will keep it as a memorial, then christians have a financial advantage because the government has already built them a christian memorial. a non-religious tribute to troops would require more money to knock down and rebuild.

and that is a minor thing, but it shows that the government should be careful to be secular and not get involved in this kind of mess. the best thing to do would be to remove any trace of impropriety by just making a non-religious monument.

 

Looks to me like they are just a non-profit organization and their membership is open to anyone. So the issue shouldn't be are they Christian.

http://www.soledadmemorial.com/joinus.html

 

since the place is private now, there are no issues at all. although if i was a veteran i wouldnt want be honored under a big stupid cross. but if those guys like it, it is their place, not mine or the government's. so good for them.

since the place is apparently private, it is a non-story now. however, there was obviously plenty of monkey business going on, at least with the early attempts to sell the place, and i wouldnt be suprised if the latest sale was somehow manipulated. but thats water under the bridge.

like i said, problems like this are easiest to avoid by never building crosses on public property to begin with.