Vote on cross upheld before angry crowd

[CShine]

Despite passionate pleas from an overflow crowd of 2,000, Los Angeles County's Board of Supervisors refused Tuesday to back down on its decision to remove a tiny Christian cross on the official seal because of a legal threat from the ACLU. The 3-2 vote came only hours after a private legal foundation filed a lawsuit against the county in federal court in Los Angeles, seeking to prevent the removal of the cross, which was part of a design adopted nearly five decades ago. The standing-room-only audience estimated at 2,000 -- the largest crowd to attend a county supervisors' meeting in recent decades -- included people of many faiths and some who espoused no faith. They were united in opposing removal of the cross. Some held signs that read "Jews for the L.A. County Seal," "Buddhists for the Seal" and "Stop the ACLU Nazis."

"This is a religious frenzy," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who voted with Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina to uphold the board's decision of last week to negotiate a solution acceptable to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

The ACLU had said it would sue on grounds that the cross is impermissible under the U.S. Constitution. Last Wednesday, the county and the ACLU reached a tentative agreement to replace the cross with depictions of a mission and indigenous people. After the five-hour hearing Tuesday, some people in the crowd expressed outrage after the board rejected a motion by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich -- backed by Supervisor Don Knabe -- to reject the tentative deal with the ACLU.

"To me, this is absolutely outrageous and I'm embarrassed by how the supervisors treated some of the speakers," said Rosemead Mayor Margaret Clark.

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20954%257E2201013,00.html

[crossroads]

1. Looks like the lot of them got very *passionate* about..."The Passion"...

Who knew it would effect so many... so strongly?... Mel Gipson?
My God! We *need* the ACLU!... We could do w/o that tiny symbol!!!IMO.
:shrug:

[JayS]

2. Hey! There is a cross in your username! :) n/t

n/t

[crossroads]

3. LOL... Oh, the irony of it all... *sigh*...

:eyes:

[crossroads]

4. Hey, did ya note... I have 666... posts?... Now... that *is* ironic!

:evilgrin:

[JayS]

5. Scary! I'm getting under the bed! :) n/t

n/t

[Democat]

6. It was a talk radio stunt!

The "protest" was a right wing talk radio stunt, nothing more.

[crossroads]

7. Well, anyway... it got me thru my 666th post...lol! (see above) n/t

[NashVegas]

8. Christian Cross?

The cross pre-dates Christ by who knows how many centuries or milenniums.

[Kinkistyle]

9. Fine: Pentagrams, Cresecent Moons and Star of Davids too.

Fairs fair, right?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. "Jews for the L.A. County Seal"

How do we know they were Jews, Buddhists, etc, other than the fact that they were holding signs like these?

Sorry, but I don't put anything past these fundy wackos. They'd murder and thieve in Jesus name, why not add deceipt to the mix?