Friday is Constitution Day! Just Don't Try to Celebrate in Ohio

This Friday, September 17, is the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. That's quite a reason to celebrate, if you ask me.  According to this news article, you better not try doing it in Andover, Ohio.

Members of the recently formed Andover Tea Party had petitioned the city to allow them to hold a rally commemorating the signing of the Constitution. They were denied due to, get this, their group's political affiliation. The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a nonpartisan law center in Ohio, has filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the Tea Party group, claiming a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Apparently, the Andover City Council is citing a local resolution that prohibits any for-profit advertising or political signs on the Andover Square.  The problem, it seems, is that the trustees believe celebrating the signing of the Constitution is a political event.

Okay. I can buy that. Under that standard, though, so is celebrating Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and Independence Day, all of which have had events cleared by the Andover City Council. There's supposed to be a ruling on a restraining order against the Council before Friday.

File this under, “More Evidence that the World has Turned Upside Down.”

Photo from the National Archives.

Ground Zero Mosque Shows Religious Intolerance, but Not Against Islam

The media chest thumping about the proposed Cordoba mosque to be built 2 blocks from Ground Zero in New York City is reaching a fever pitch. Most articles I've found show a clear support for allowing the mosque to be built. I have to agree. It's on private property. It's being funded privately. There is no legal reason I can see for stopping it from being built. Indeed, plans have been approved by New York City already.

These same New York officials seem to feel differently about Greek Orthodox Catholics, though. What is barely being covered by the mass media is the fiasco surrounding the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church, destroyed when the south tower fell on it in 2001. The St. Nicholas parish council has been trying to get permission to rebuild it ever since. For some reason, the New York Port Authority has said no.

So, YES to Muslims, NO to Greek Orthodox Catholics.

Do you sense religious discrimination here? I do.

To be fair, there are other issues involved. Reading between the rhetoric, it seems like an issue of land use. It was originally proposed to move the site one block over because the Port Authority wanted to use the land, or at least the land underneath it, as part of a security screening point to be installed as part of the area rebuild. Now, the Port Authority is back-pedaling. A Port Authority spokesperson told Fox News, “The church continues to have the right to rebuild at their original site, and we will pay fair market value for the underground space beneath that building.”

My suspicion is that with the costs of the rebuild, and the current economic crisis, the city has decided to play hardball. I wouldn't be surprised to find an eminent domain clause being used to force the sale of the land at a rock-bottom price in the very near future, leaving the parish without a church or land to build it on.

So much for the First Amendment.

Somehow, given our “politically correct” climate, I doubt this nonsense would have happened if it had been a mosque that was destroyed instead of a Greek Orthodox church.

You can read more about it from both Fox News and the New York Times.