In response to the Ninth Circuit of Appeals recent decision that the cross atop Mt. Soledad is unconstitutional, hundreds showed up to support the war memorial on Saturday. They were entreated to an inspirational and humbling program.
War veterans spoke, including a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. He had to be helped both onto and off of the stage, but he needed no assistance in telling his story. He spoke of the day after “the day that shall live in infamy,” when he had “body recovery duty.” This entailed waiting for the bodies of fallen American soldiers to float to the top of the waters of the Pacific to be brought ashore.
There was a group, comprised of wives and sisters of soldiers, who sang patriotic songs such as “I am proud to be an American” beautifully. From Representative Duncan Hunter to local and longtime Mt. Soledad advocate Phil Thalheimer, there were powerful speeches in favor of the war memorial established by Korean War veterans in 1954.
I stood there with my wife and a close friend taking it all in, on a day so gorgeous that La Jolla (the Jewel) seemed to have a name that actually damned it with faint praise. I thought of how “the world” was appalled (as was I) and “international pleas” to the Taliban in Afghanistan were ignored (surprise, surprise) in March 2001. Six months before the September 11 attacks, the Taliban destroyed two ancient statues (5th century) of the Buddha called Bamiyan in an attempt to cleanse the country of Afghanistan of what they perceived as Hindu heresy.
On Saturday we all stood in defense of the Mt. Soledad cross, as secularists try to cleanse the country of what they perceive as “Christian heresy.” The Taliban removed heretical religious symbols with dynamite. Secularists in America are doing it with lawyers.
