OPINION: Non-Christian Veterans Are Being Excluded From Lake Elsinore’s Proposed Veterans Memorial

This opinion was written by Johnny Coogan, a Lake Elsinore resident who is a teacher and veteran.

There are many disturbing comments relating to the proposed veterans memorial for which I’d like to comment.  First, I am a veteran, so I feel I have the right to weigh in on the subject.  I served as a United Nations peacekeeper in the Former Yugoslavia as well in Operation Desert Falcon in the Middle East.  Second, I am an Atheist. 

Months ago I wrote an article for The Patch pleading, as a veteran, to reconsider a memorial with a religious symbol to honor soldiers when there are hundreds of thousands of veterans, like myself, who don’t consider themselves Christian. I even e-mailed Mr. Tisdale, the mayor of Lake Elsinore at the time, to see if he could empathize with many of his constituency. Unfortunately, his Christian faith trumped his responsibility to the people he was elected to assist. 

I’ve been following this issue from the beginning, and there wasn’t any mention of WWII depiction of a Latin cross until there was push back from non-Christians. But even if the Lake Elsinore City Council wants to play that card, when do government agencies erect discriminatory monuments if, in the past, those discriminatory practices were acceptable? During WWII there were many instances where crosses were put on the graves of soldiers who weren’t even Christian, but does that mean we should glorify those discriminatory practices on our monument?

Many are saying this is Christian bashing or a war on Christianity. That is false. This is purely a Christian issue and nothing else. Nobody is saying that Christians have to go to a certain church, pray in a particular place, or that they cannot be religious at all. Non-religious people just don’t want tax dollars to fund a religious symbol when this monument is supposed to be for all soldiers, not just Christian soldiers.

I have no desire to censure Christians’ religious beliefs. I think religious beliefs should stay personal, just like I want my non-belief to stay personal. But Christians are taking the personal belief away from all non-Christians by pushing for Christian symbols on a publicly funded monument. And, once again, non-religious people don’t want tax dollars funding anything with crosses on it.  

If Christians feel so strongly about this issue, they should collect money from fellow Christians, purchase a piece of private property, and then spend that same money to erect the monument. Non-religious people don’t care what any American does privately. 

As I mentioned to Mr. Tisdale, this is a beautiful monument but it does not need to have crosses. One of the very first ideas that the subcommittee endorsed had symbols from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. When did that get taken off the table for a cross? If the monument was truly for veterans, and not Christians, why not have a monument that represents all the soldiers with symbols of branches of service and not religion?   

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