] The Hollywood Bowl indicates the cultural activities,
] while the two stars represent the County's motion
] picture and television industries.
]
] The cross represents the influence of the church and the
] missions of California.

The right wing is hopping mad right now because the ACLU of SoCal has gotten the board of LA County, under threat of suit, to agree to remove the cross from their seal.

The argument that they are making is that the seal represents the influence of the Spanish Missions on the history of California. That makes sense to me. Los Angeles was founded by Spanish Missionaries (along with San Francisco, San Diego, and everything in between).

To be sure, the Catholic Church is hardly "established" in the LA government. Regardless of the facts of this case, I don't believe that the ACLU ought to be going around suing crosses off of public land and city seals. There are simply more important civil liberties battles to be fought, especially in a place like L.A.

I like the ACLU because they defend my civil liberties. I like them because they uphold the Constitution. We need an institution in this country that defends the people against civil liberties encroachments by the U.S. Government. People don't have the resources to defend themselves as individuals. Only an independent organization can do that effectively.

When I first saw the right smear them as "liberal radicals" I was a little surprised. Aren't constitutional rights something that all sides of the political spectrum have an interest in? Haven't I seen the ACLU defend far right interests? Why does this perception exist?

The right has three problems with the ACLU, all three of which I suppose they must care about more then any other civil liberty which the ACLU must defend. Two of these problems are expressed in a popular joke:

"How does the ACLU count to ten?"
"1,3,4,5,6,7,8"

This thing spreads around the right wing. People laugh because they think they are supposed to make fun of the liberal radicals at the ACLU. They understand the part about 2, but not about 9 and 10. They don't even know what the 9th and 10th amendments are, anyway. So they pass the joke on. Har Har

9 and 10 are omitted in this joke for a very sinister reason. 9 and 10 have to do with unenumerated rights being held by the states and the people. States Rights. People often talk in philosophical terms about states rights and come to the conclusion that they make sense. What is good for Tennessee is not necessarily good for California. Furthermore, states serve a useful role as laboratories of democracy, where new policy ideas can be evaluated on small scales.

Unfortunately, what the right means when it takes about states rights is segregation. The federal government came into the South in the 50's and 60's and forced them to stop discriminating against black people. Older conservativ... [ Read More (0.9k in body) ]

[ Decius makes some very good points here, and I'm not going to waste time repeating too much, or being as thorough...

I agree that the cross on the seal of LA county almost certainly has a religious, not historical, intent. I agree that in a perfect world, it wouldn't be on there. In this world though, it's an extremely minor issue, and not worthy of the expense, both monetary and social, of attacking.

There are greater questions of church/state separation to be dealt with, not the least of which is what happens when the majority of people *want* more religion in their government. I'm happy to be the elitist who says categorically that the majority is wrong in such a case, and that ethics can and should be separated from whatever framework of mtyhology you prefer.

Anyway, yeah, the ACLU needs to re-prioritize. And also stop sending me so much paper. Use more of my money for causes and less on sending me sheaves of action alerts and requests for more money. -k]