re: #297 Obdicut

I can tell you of two cases here in San Diego, where for almost half my life the city residents had to listen to arguments, lawsuits, and more about a large cross on public lands.

I grew up on the foothills of one of these, and could see it from my bedroom window. There I was, a poor little atheist, forced to see that abomination on land that I owned. It tore me up. And it pissed me off.

Or should I say it did at one time? I finally had an atheist “epiphany” of sorts and realized that the cross up there really didn’t have any influence on my life one way or another. From that moment on, it hasn’t bothered me a bit. In fact, it has bothered me so little that I can’t even recall seeing it that often since then, even though it’s still there. Funny how that works.

About two decades of legal battles against the city brought about because of ONE GUY, who didn’t want the cross up there. Eventually the city outsmarted the smartass and the land just around the cross was sold to a private firm. It was rather fitting to see a technicality deep six the technicality.

Also here in San Diego, the solstice shtick was tried on displays in Balboa Park. Didn’t work. At first. So guess what happened? Lawsuits. Endless lawsuits. To me, that falls into the even more outrageous category. Eventually the city spent who knows how much money on lawyers and such, and in the end, the displays came down as a matter of finances, not because of any judicial decisions. Mission accomplished for the atheists. And don’t even try for one second to put forth that this isn’t or wasn’t the goal in this case.

Go yelp about “In God We Trust” being on our currency for all I care. Me? I like collecting the stuff.