I get complimented on my patience all the time. In fact a friend told me at one time that it was one of my flaws.
However when my patience is tested I tend to snap and today I snapped when I read this article on the net:
By The Associated Press
A legal advocacy center founded by television evangelist Pat Robertson has announced it will enter the legal battle to save a giant cross atop San Diego’s Mount Soledad.
A federal judge last week gave the city of San Diego 90 days to remove the 29-foot-high cross or face $5,000 a day in fines.
The Washington, D.C.-based American Center for Law and Justice said Monday that it will support San Diego’s effort to seek a stay of the judge’s ruling.
“We believe that the city of San Diego has strong legal arguments to ensure that the cross on Mt. Soledad remains in place,” said Jay Sekulow, the center’s chief counsel.
The article continued that the Mt Soledad Cross has been the subject of a 17 year court fight started by Philip Paulson.
The city has lost every legal hearing and every scheme to keep the cross has failed. The last attempt to change the result was to have a resolution that was on the local ballot to allow the city to offer the parkland the cross sits on to the National Park Service – the reason being that if the land was under the NPS then the cross would stay. A state judge ruled that ballot initiative was unconstitutional. That ruling is being appealed.
Last week the federal judge didn’t seem impressed.
In his ruling, Thompson said he has spent years hearing arguments over the cross, as have other courts.
“Consistently, every court that has addressed the issue has ruled that the presence of the Latin cross on Mount Soledad, land which is owned by the city of San Diego . . . violates Article I Section 4 of the California Constitution,” he said in his order.
And, he said, two cases that came up at the same time as this one – involving a cross on Mount Helix and a cross on the La Mesa city seal – have long since been resolved.
Of course the Mayor doesn’t see the writing on the wall:
The mayor said an appeal would be worth the money, but acknowledged he didn’t know what an appeal would cost the budget-strapped city.
Sanders justified continuing the legal battle despite Aguirre’s advice and the city’s dismal record of fighting it in court because, he said, most San Diegans believe the cross should stay.
“Seventy-five percent of the voters said they thought it was extremely important. I think we need to go to an appeal,” he said.
Just move the dang cross!
