Soledad Mountain Veterans Memorial-San Diego

Rising from the highest point along the coast of San Diego is a tall concrete cross, the universal symbol of Christianity that conveys the mystery of "the Prince of Peace" whose death was an affirmation of eternal life.  The official name of this site is the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial.

This site, The Mount Soledad Veteran's Memorial, is one of other mysteries, other paradoxes  a federal enclave with no signs of its actual ownership, a memorial to those who served in our wars to defend our country.  But, unlike most countries, ours is not the formalization of an ethnicity but one that is based very much on fostering diversity of values-none more protected than those we call religions freedom.  The Soledad site can be defined by over two decades of legal and political conflict, with the war veteran who spearheaded one side earning the appellation of "the most hated man in San Diego."   Yet, in the midst of the long simmering, and still ongoing conflict, with barbs and accusations ripping across airwaves and newspapers, with anger, threats and condemnations that echo to this day, something notable has occurred that deserves to be brought into view.  The details are overwhelmingly complex, as described on this Wikipedia article for those who want to give it a try.

During the time between that first lawsuit to remove the cross by Phil Paulson in 1989 and this day, throughout the world millions of people have met violent death in conflicts defined by religious differences.  In the U.K. it was Catholics and Protestants because their brand of Christianity was different  In India it was between Muslims and Hindus; and we were caught up in the ongoing internecine war among Muslims based on the nuanced difference between Shia and Sunni that is so arcane to be lost outsiders-yet real enough to terrorize those with different identifications.  These religious conflicts took on political and economic aspects, but were always defined and exacerbated by this these ancient hatreds

With all of the lawsuits, inflammatory rhetoric of pandering politicians and newspapers, during this local battle between Christians and secularists over our cross, there was not a single casualty.  Zero.  There were no children maimed or orphaned due to the virulent hatred that such religious conflict engenders in so many parts of our world.

This is a reason to celebrate what this country is, what those who gave us our republic, our constitutional system bequeathed us.  And there is no better location for such a physical expression of this than the exact site of the cross of mount soledad.   It is this idea enshrined in our constitution that deserves to be memorialized, not only in the physical symbol that shall rise at this site, but as a visual representation of  freedom of expression that makes this country unique.

At this very moment we are following an Appeals court decision that has been affirmed by the Supreme Court that ruled that the existing cross may not remain as the sole symbol over this memorial.  At this juncture it is time to redefine this process away from what has evolved, a civil verbal war between Christians and others.  It need not be a conflict at all, because the very constitution that mandates that the cross may not stand, also protects every religious or secular expression at this site, including those who pray to what is represented by the existing cross.

My proposal, echoed in this article in the local newspaper,  is a creative monument to our Constitution, the memorializing not of any war or any religion but to an an idea that has inspired the world.  Slightly below the hill will we will tell the story of this site, of religious freedom, and how vulnerable is an idea reflected by what transpired over this site--argument, political pandering, legal action,  referendums, ---with the final chapter still to be written.

As the two sides of this decades long conflict are now exchanging briefs in response to the appeals order that the cross as it exists may not remain, we are at a crossroads.  The defenders of the cross remaining in spite of the legal order, may attempt to stall for another round of appeals, waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on certiorari, while the time the current religious symbol becomes "facts on the ground,"  as even now many newcomers to the area are unaware of the long contentious history of this site.   There is another option, one that turns this legal conflict into an occasion to celebrate our American Constitutional System.

It is the time to think large.  A tower that rises even higher than the cross as a monument to a process, would demand contemplation, and as such, valuing that which makes this country unique.  The tower would protect all religions, none less than Christianity, not only here where it is a majority, but as a symbol in other lands where it is vulnerable to religious inspired hatred. 

If we do this with the right spirit it will become something meaningful not only to our city, and state, but more importantly to those beyond. It is a fitting memorial to those who risked everything for the country that sheltered these values, a symbol that the battle of ideas need not be defined by body counts, explosives and eternal hatred among peoples.   This would be the true memorial to the deeper values that America can be proud to represent.
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Link to my website on the Soledad Mountain