BURKARD'S BLOG
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21 AUG 03: A MONUMENTAL DEBATE
At least 20 people were arrested for trespassing Wednesday, as they tried to prevent the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building. It was strange to see, in a way - because the protesters were preventing part of the "Word of God" from going out into the world.
(How disappointed must those protesters be - because God didn't strike down the arresting officers on the spot.)
Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor announced he would uphold a federal court order, and make sure the Ten Commandments monument is removed. And of course, Mr. Pryor doesn't have to worry about the voters removing HIM - since Senate Democrats will hear this, end their filibuster and confirm him to the federal appeals court.
(It had to disappoint Republican lawyers - to see the Attorney General engaging in some "Pryor restraint.")
Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition said authorities would need a forklift to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building. The good news for supporters is that plenty of Montgomery churches are nearby, ready to take it in.
Some members of the Christian Defense Coalition planned a "kneel-down" protest - first around the Ten Commandments monument, then around the judicial building. As they did this, I hope they read the second commandment carefully. That's the one about bowing down to graven images.
A man from Valley said he staged his own demonstration for the Ten Commandments monument - by riding a horse all the way to Washington! He also unwittingly showed skeptics how backwards the state of Alabama appears to be.
Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Roy Moore told ABC's "Good Morning America" the federal judge issuing rulings against the Ten Commandments monument is a bit hypocritical. He noted outside Myron Thompson's courthouse, there's a statue of a Greek goddess! But of course, there's a big difference - Thompson already locked that goddess outside the building.
The state of Alabama risked $5,000 daily fines from a federal judge, if the Ten Commandments monument was not removed by midnight. The blame for this goes not on Chief Justice Roy Moore, but Governor Bob Riley - because if his tax vote was scheduled sooner, the state could pay for this.
Speaking of money, I was thankful Wednesday afternoon to find one of the last gas stations in Columbus with prices below $1.40 a gallon. I'm starting to think the "Summit" at 22nd Avenue and Victory Drive should be renamed the "Valley."
I thanked the man behind the counter at Summit for keeping the gas price so low. He revealed he'd just gotten off the phone with a manager, who says prices likely will go up Thursday morning. What's the matter? Don't they WANT a big crowd of customers?
The strange thing was that Summit had NO lines of cars filling up -- even though its gas price was at least seven cents below the big-name convenience stores around it. Do other drivers know something I don't know? Is this business run by a bunch of people from France?
Checking some other sites we've seen around town lately....
+ Yesteryear's antique shop on 11th Street posted a sign for a three-day sale: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But with a name like Yesteryear's, has this sale happened already - maybe 20 years ago?
+ A car passed me on 10th Street with a Christian "fish" logo - only the word "Sheriff" was inside the fish. Does this mean Sheriff Ralph Johnson is a Christian -- or he goes fishing on weekends?
+ Posters promoting a concert by the Latin group "Mandingo" promised it would include announcers from Ritmo Latino Radio. But instead of using the Spanish ord "locutores," it was misspelled "LOCO-tores" - as in crazy. [True] The two loud announcers on Friday night who never seem to shut up would fit that description....