A big cross was erected 78 years ago by the Veterans of Foreign Wars on a desolate rock hilltop in the Mojave Desert in southern California to honor men who gave their lives fighting for our country in World War I. The location was a remote place called Sunrise Rock. The ACLU decided it was offended by this existence of this cross and carried on ten years of litigation to get supremacist judges to rule that this cross on public land violated the First Amendment and so-called separation of church and state. You would have to go to great lengths to be offended by this simple iron cross. You can't see the cross from the freeway, as it was 12 rocky miles distant from the interstate.
Court decisions went back and forth for ten years. First, a supremacist judge declared the cross on public land unconstitutional and ordered it removed. During several years of litigation, the cross was encased in a plywood box. Then the Christians tried to transfer one acre of land to the VFW in the middle of the park, but a federal appellate judge again ruled against that solution. Finally, the Supreme Court overturned that decision. On Veterans Day this year, the VFW had a ceremony celebrating the newly erected cross as dedicated to our valiant veterans, and thank the valiant Californians who pursued this ten-year battle to a victorious conclusion.
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