Opinion: Camp Pendleton Cross One of Many Religious Symbols in Government

Recently I read that four Marines (God bless the Marine Corps) Scott Radetski, Karen Mendoza, John Gross, and Shannon Book are to be commended, if I might so do, for erecting a memorial atop a mountain on Camp Pendleton. Apparently, a group of atheists have demanded the Memorial be destroyed. An enemy named Jason Torpy and his group called Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers insists such memorial has no place on a government installation. Torpy cites — no doubt recent legal decisions — dating to 1988 when the enemy in the American Civil Liberties Union used the corrupted courts to destroy the Camp Smith Cross (a memorial raised on the Island of Oahu in Memory of Marines who had died in the Republic Of Vietnam, 1966).

The first outrage I remember though was when the enemy used these same corrupted Courts to destroy the Schofield Barracks Cross/Memorial. Not even a decorated war hero turned mere politician from Hawaii defended the Cross. But if these — or your Camp Pendleton Cross Memorial — violate the establishment clause — then damn it, I need to see what authorization allows any Court change the meaning of the terms used.

And I need to see why, If Torpy and MAAF are right and defending the Constitution, is the Liberty Bell cast with Leviticus 25:10 in the cap of that National Treasure an exception to the Law?

Why is the Supreme Court building with four permanent display of the Ten Commandments Tablets excluded from the law?

Why is the Cape Henry Cross Memorial erected in 1935 excluded?

Why is the Celtic Cross in the Woods - the Irish Brigade Memorial Gettysburg-Excluded?

Why are the Crosses at Arlington, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier excluded?

Why are the crosses and Memorial at Normandy (kept by the United States as a Memorial in France ) excluded?

No, Sir — I don't give a damn busted entrenching tool what is said. If the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights is cited as the authority offended, then damn it, the terms used in that authority, as they were understood when it was adopted ought be the standard defended. And I salute and commend the Marines who erected their Memorial to the fallen Marines. (I wear a pin I created everywhere I go “Put our Cross Back” for the Mojave Cross that was stolen in 2010.)

I am bone weary of citizens ignorant of our Constitution using Ignorance and guile to destroy our memorials. Mr. Lincoln declared in 1858 "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He built a political speech around Scripture (seen in Mark 3: 24-25). He noted policy instituted to remedy the agitation of slavery. How the agitation had been augmented instead.

I close in saying may all the curses written in the Book be visited upon those who break covenant — as it is written in the Sacred Writ. If the enemy wishes to cite the first amendment as being violated — it ought be defended according to the meaning of the terms used as they were understood from 1791 when the Bill of Rights were adopted by the States — until the meaning was changed by a court largely appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Which side of that divisive wall are you on? In ‘69 we trained as Gen. Washington expected his Army to so live and act. His orders taught us dumbass trainees Ft. Campbell, Ky June 1969.

After that, I took as my own a code — I will never surrender of my own free will. If that Memorial is deemed unconstitutional, then I insist the Liberty Bell — and all other memorials that include images reflective our Christian heritage be likewise destroyed for they remind us of who we once were and a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Robert Burkholder, of Fruita, CO, served as an Army medic from 1969 to 1977.

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