It baffles me that the City of Everett would decide to spend six figures fighting a lawsuit to keep its Ten Commandments monument, when, for just a fraction of that amount, the city could defuse the lawsuit, keep the monument and create a win for all involved. How? By changing their mindset to focus on what might be added, rather than on what might be removed.
Instead of enriching their attorneys in a fight that would, at best, keep one half-hidden monument in its current location, a much cheaper alternative would be to erect several additional monuments (or plaques) that reflect the great breadth of our heritage and the vast diversity of cultures and religious beliefs that have contributed to the entity called America. These additional plaques should quote universal values or legal principles from sources that are secular (e.g., Hammurabi, the Magna Carta, the Code of Solon, the Iroquois Constitution), religious (e.g., the Koran, Buddha, Baha’ullah, the Guru Granth Sahib, Scientology), and atheistic (e.g., Madeline Murray O’Hare). And, heck, maybe groups that represent the cultures would even donate the plaques for nothing.
Doing this would effectively prove that the monuments are intended to celebrate our universal heritage (and not to promote a particular state-preferred religion, which is the basis for the lawsuit), retain the Ten Commandments monument and create an inspiring tourist attraction. And instead of one lonely half-hidden monument that has been essentially ignored since 1959, we could have an entire plaza that celebrates the greatness of America’s richly varied historical legacy. Call it something snazzy, like Heritage Plaza, Universal Values Square or America’s Cultural Wonderland!
Now, wouldn’t that be better than blowing six or seven figures in a bitter, divisive catfight in which everyone, except the attorneys, loses?
Robert Hayman
Marysville
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