Save the Mingus Memorial---Updated 3/31/2013‏

3/31/2013

Hey Folks,
The issue of the place of religion on memorials is going to be a very hot topic in Coos County, so it seems fitting to place this issue on the blog. I will be adding comments and updates to this post, and the emails that I have received from other people. Everyone is welcome to make comments at the bottom of any of the blog posts.....Rob.T.

Greetings!

The Coos Bay City Council meeting this Tuesday at 7p at the CB Library at 525 Anderson Ave, will be discussing the attack by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to remove the cross from the Veteran's Memorial.

Please read the Mayor's letter about this upcoming meeting:
http://cb.delaris.com/uploads/PDF/cc_agenda/2013/04-02-2013/Agenda_Item_3_Mingus_Park_Memorial.pdf

Private solutions are on the table, but we must let these creeps, the FFRF, know we're not putting up with this at all.

Please attend this meeting and let everyone you know so we can have a BIG turnout of support!!!

Hello friends,

I am sending this email out to some people that are familiar with this issue as well some who are not. The Mingus Park Vietnam Memorial is being threatened by an out of state group because it has a cross on it. This group exists solely to sue various levels of government over issues that have to do with freedom of religion. They see our memorial as government sponsored religion. Obviously it is not. It is a memorial dedicated to the people who gave their lives, health and youth to fight a war for all of America.

I have set up a website to give concerned citizens a rallying point. It is www.savethemingusmemorial.com.
Please go there and sign the petition.

There will be someone speaking about this issue at the next Coos County Republican Central Committee meeting. The meeting will be 6:00 PM on March 28th at Red Lion Hotel. The body may pass a resolution against this outrage as well.

I am in talks with some veterans about organizing a rally. I will let everyone know more about that once I learn more.

Let's save the memorial.

Thanks,
Jason Payne
Chairman Coos County
Republican Central Committee

From: C. Martin
Sent: Sun 3/31/13 9:54 AM

Fellow Patriots
I had contacted Jim Bice, the conservative radio host locally, as I had
heard about this issue on his last program. Here's the research he has done:

On 3/30/2013 10:15 PM, C. Martin wrote:
Greetings, Jim Bice

I listened to your talk last Monday about the Veteran's Memorial being attacked by the friggin' 'anti-religion' creeps. You mentioned that the whole thing could be resolved and protected by selling the memorial with
a few surrounding feet of property to a private owner(of which you said there was someone who offered to make the purchase), then this group couldn't proceed.

I shared this idea with Rick Hoffin of the AFP and he said he hoped you would come to the City Council meeting Tuesday night and present this idea and bring potential buyers. Rick also said there will be an atheist
society coming from Coquille to fight against us.

If you can come and bring 'backup' it would sure help.

Thanks so much for your serious consideration.

Most sincerely
Connie

Hi Connie:

I had intended to be at the meeting Tuesday evening but I had a little accident yesterday and will probably be laid up for several days.

I've done some research that perhaps you, or someone you work with, can bring up at the meeting.

Here's the background on the cross in Mingus Park:

The Latin cross (crux ordinaria) is a stipe (upright post) with a patibulum (horizontal beam) inserted at right-angles. It is often
regarded as a symbol of Christianity even though it was used as a pagan symbol for millennia before the foundation of the Christian Church.

Although often perceived as an identification mark of the Christian faith, replacing the lamb, fish, alpha/omega, and phoenix as emblems. The cross was previously considered a pagan symbol, with several early church fathers objecting to its use. Christians cannot (and generally do not) claim that they have exclusive right to use the symbol. The Latin Cross is not a registered trademark and it is used freely in heraldry, fashion jewelry, by Freemasons, and still today, by Pagans.

The Latin cross is commonly seen as a burial marker in cemeteries, on battlefields and military memorials and became a simplified
representation of a sword stuck into the ground, hilt up. It bore no religious significance but was rather used as a marker to designate were a warrior had fallen.

As a Pagan symbol, it has been found in China and Africa. It appears on Scandinavian Bronze Age stones depicting the destructive hammer of Thor, their god of thunder and war. It is regarded as a magical symbol, bringing good luck and diverting evil. Rock carvings of the cross have been interpreted as a solar symbol, or a symbol of earth with its points representing north, south, east, and west.

To alchemists, the cross was a symbol of the four 'classical elements': air, earth, fire, water.

Elsewhere, the cross variously symbolized health, fertility, life, immortality, the union of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, the sun
and the stars.

A spokesperson for the Freedom From Religion Foundation said that they won't be satisfied with some private person or organization buying and maintaining the memorial...they want it REMOVED!

This, in and of itself, is ample indication that these people don't give a rat's ass about memorials, freedom of expression or anything but their own agenda to vilify Christianity. They're a bunch of self-serving assholes who put their so-called "rights" ahead of those of everyone else.

So what if they're "offended" by the sight of the cross. I, and many others, am offended by their efforts to inflict their views upon
everyone else by using the power of government and the courts to bludgeon us into submission.

If my situation allows, I will be at the meeting to speak for myself - but at the moment it isn't looking very promising. Hopefully there will be enough people there who believe a we do to sway the City Council.

Jim

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