Diverse News 2007®

bank loans news with a different slant bank loans
Pro-American Organizations Launch National Effort to Defend Veterans' Memorials
    WASHINGTON, May 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Americans prepare for
the Memorial Day holiday, The American Legion, Alliance Defense Fund, and
Liberty Legal Institute today launched a national effort to defend and
protect America's veterans' memorials from potential legal attacks from
groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The joint announcement
was made during at news conference at the National Press Club.
    "One person's agenda shouldn't diminish the sacrifice made by America's
veterans and their families," said ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice-
President of Allied Attorney Support and Coordination Joe Infranco.
"Despite the claims from the ACLU and others, crosses on veterans'
memorials have been under attack. One only needs to look at what's happened
at Mt. Soledad and in the Mojave Desert. Americans want these memorials to
be protected."
    ADF and The American Legion have been involved in legal efforts to
defend the cross memorial at Mt. Soledad in San Diego and the Mojave Desert
Cross in southern California against ACLU-led efforts to have them removed.
Both memorials honor American military veterans.
    In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that an
atheist's 17-year-old lawsuit seeking to tear down the cross at Mt. Soledad
be declared moot (http://www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3980). Despite
that, the ACLU has again filed suit against the memorial in an effort to
have the cross removed. A federal court also granted a motion filed by the
ACLU that resulted in an order to cover the Mojave Desert Cross so that no
one can view it (http://www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4067).
    "Stamping out these symbols of sacrifice is the first step to
forgetting who's kept America free and what's made America great," said
Infranco. "ADF, The American Legion, and Liberty Legal are joining together
to ensure that we will never forget the sacrifice made by so many for our
precious freedoms -- including the freedom to honor our fallen heroes as we
so choose."

    Past National American Legion Commander Tom Bock, representing National
Commander Paul Morin who was on travel overseas, announced a concurrent
national campaign to pass legislation to plug a legal loophole that enables
judges to award millions of dollars to ACLU and other attorneys seeking to
remove religious symbols from memorials and other public venues.
    "During the last Congress, The American Legion launched a national
awareness campaign to pass the Public Expression of Religion Act, known as
PERA," Bock said. "It passed overwhelmingly in the House but its companion
bill was introduced late in the 109th Congress without enough time to get a
floor vote in the Senate. Today, its successor -- The Veterans' Memorials,
Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expression of Religion
Protection Act of 2007 has been introduced in both chambers -- H.R. 725 in
the House and S. 415 in the Senate. This time, The American Legion, ADF and
Liberty Legal Institute are joined together to engage America to make this
new PERA the law of the land."
    In addition to identifying and cataloging war memorials across the
United States to create a comprehensive national data base, Bock said that
in the coming months, Legionnaires across America will be reaching out to
all Americans to "educate and activate" them to demand that Congress pass
the legislation.
    ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the truth
through strategy, training, funding, and litigation. The American Legion is
the nation's largest veterans' service organization, representing 2.7
million wartime veterans.
terms and conditions