Atheists jeer as monument hits D.C.
National Mall stop draws protesters, curious supporters
Saturday, October 23, 2004
MARY ORNDORFF
News Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON - The national tour of former Alabama judge Roy Moore's granite monument to the Ten Commandments hit its first snag Friday when atheist protesters confronted it on the National Mall.
Until then, the 12-state, 64-town tour had been largely peaceful as people were allowed to read, touch and pose for pictures with the piece of granite from Alabama they had been reading about.
On Friday morning, though, there was a tense debate between a group of atheists from Pennsylvania and the Christians who came to pay their respects to the sculpture. The situation was initially defused by Native Americans in authentic dress who brokered a brief peace, but the U.S. Park Police eventually escorted the atheists to the other side of Madison Drive, where they held signs calling for the separation of church and state.
"We can stand here and make fun of your rock," said Lorie Polansky of Altoona, Pa.
Jim Cabaniss of Texas, one of the organizers of the tour, was unfazed by the commotion. "Veterans fought for their right to do that," said Cabaniss, whose group, American Veterans in Domestic Defense, contracted with Moore to take the monument across the country. "We don't have any problem with it."
The monument, hoisted out of a closet in the Alabama state judicial building in July and placed on the back of a 40-foot flatbed truck, attracted a steady stream of the curious, many of whom were on hand for a huge, unrelated prayer rally.
"To see it personally, I think it's going to get a lot of people to wake up," said Joanie Miller, 34, of Lusby, Md. "It'll get you to start thinking, `Where is your heart? Where is America's heart?'"
`Out of the closet':
John Hetherington rolled up on in-line skates, climbed the stairs on the back of the truck - which was parked in front of the Museum of Natural History, behind a long line of portable bathrooms set up for the rally - and filmed the monument up close. He's working on a documentary about his life as a survivor of an attempted abortion.
"What struck me is that veterans risked their lives to keep this country and this world free and now they're making a statement about what this country was founded on," said Hetherington, a Canadian citizen.
Anita and Rick Moreau traveled from Newport, N.C., for the "America for Jesus" rally but had heard the Ten Commandments monument would be on display.
"I'm just glad it's out of the closet," Anita Moreau said. "We're way too close to the end times to play around."
The Moreaus, who work for the Department of Defense, cautioned that the message - not the monument - should be the focus. If Moore had a chance to display the commandments in a way that would not be considered a state establishment of a religion, he should have considered it, Rick Moreau said.
"It's not about that stone," he said. "You can compromise your position without compromising your principle."
Cabaniss had a box on the truck for collecting donations to keep the tour going - a $1,500-a-week endeavor.
Hollis Summers of Maynardville, Tenn., had been with the monument all of its 14,000 miles and was this week's truck driver.
"Judge Moore gave up a lot more than I will going on this tour," Summers said. Moore lost his job as chief justice when he refused to obey a federal court order to remove the rock from the rotunda of the judicial building in Montgomery.
Brokering peace:
As the nearby rally grew in strength and volume, the crowd around the flatbed truck also grew. At one point, a war veteran and Native American from Oregon named Marshall Tall Eagle approached the atheist protesters. Learning that two of them also were veterans, Tall Eagle summoned an assistant to bring two "Warriors' Medal of Valor," and he hung them around their necks.
"We don't agree with your beliefs but we respect your service," said Lauretta Serna, Tall Eagle's wife and a descendant of the Shoshone tribe.
Chris Davis, an atheist and veteran from Pennsylvania, said, "Just remember, there are atheists who served, too."
Later, Davis said he would have liked to have seen Moore himself, but the former judge wasn't there.
"I came to see the blockhead who put this rock up," Davis said. "I wanted to remind him that we're godless Yankees in this part of the country and we want to keep it that way[/b]."
