Posted on 10/25/2006 6:15:14 PM PDT by radar101
Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59.
Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters.
The Cross
Typical Memorial Plaque around base
During interviews with The San Diego Union-Tribune in September and October, a few months after doctors told him he did not have long to live, Paulson said he was unconcerned about death and proud of the stand that defined his life.
“The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it,” said Paulson, who turned away from religion early in life. “It has nothing to do with me being an atheist or whether I was a Bible-thumping fundamentalist Baptist preacher.”
Paulson, the grandson of a Lutheran preacher who shunned media attention to protect the case, agreed to exclusive interviews on the condition that his comments remain confidential until his death or the end of the case.
He said he wanted people to understand why he pursued the removal of the cross, and that he was never motivated by a hatred of Christians.
“I don't harbor those kind of feelings,” Paulson said. “My mother's a Christian. I was raised a devout Christian. I'm not anti-Christian. The reason I did it is because it's not fair to the other religions. America is not just the Christian religion.”
Paulson, who grew up in Clayton, Wis., a town of 300 people, taught computer and business classes at National University.
When it became clear last summer that Paulson's condition was terminal, he and his lawyer, James McElroy, made plans to add another plaintiff to the case so that it could continue. The city has agreed to the move, although the change awaits the judge's signature. The new plaintiff, Steve Trunk, is a Vietnam war veteran, an atheist and also the product of a religious upbringing.
The city has argued that while the cross has religious significance, it also has a secular purpose – to honor war veterans. Paulson contended the memorial portion of the hilltop site was built only after he filed suit. The cross is a religious symbol that should be moved from public land, Paulson contended.
President Bush signed a bill this year that transferred ownership of the cross and war memorial site to the Department of Defense.
I can't find Karma in my Bible. Can you cite chapter and verse?
St. Peter: Say, aren't you the guy who took down the cross. Wait a minute while I check with the boss.
It was Transferred to Federal Government August 14, 2006 as National Veterans Memorial
No longer public property but still a memorial
May your next life not be so vindictive.
He'll fit right in where he's going.
Thank you. I assume that the cross will be safe in our Department of Defense. Looks like the saga had a happy ending.
tdewey you have no idea what is in that man's heart, and if you're a Christian your judgement is ill measured.
No. You're not alone...
James McElroy Chair, Center board of directors, Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/center/history/mcelroy.jsp
Like much of the United States at the time, racial tensions in James McElroy's Illinois hometown ran high during the civil rights era. Many of his friends and family were either neutral or hostile to the Civil Rights Movement, leaving McElroy, now chairman of the Center's board of directors, to look to figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Julian Bond and the Freedom Riders for inspiration.
That inspiration led to a number of early activist efforts for McElroy. Many of his friends turned against him one day in high school when he decided to join dozens of his fellow students in a walkout to protest a racial incident at the school. He carried that activism to the University of Illinois, where he was known for engaging members of the Ku Klux Klan in debates at a campus bar.
Ultimately, it was the early inspiration from the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement and their pursuit of justice and equality that led McElroy to a career in law. It also led to his eventual relationship with the Center, which began almost by accident 15 years ago in a San Diego office building.
"By sheer coincidence, Morris Dees was in San Diego working on the Tom Metzger case," recalls McElroy, referring to the Center's landmark lawsuit against Metzger and his hate group, White Aryan Resistance (WAR). "I heard he was in the same office building where I was working. I wanted to introduce myself to him, so I strolled down and said hello. I told him, 'I know this is a Portland case, but if you need any help in San Diego, let me know.'"
McElroy figured that would be both the first and last time their paths would cross.
"I was sure he had people doing that kind of thing all the time and I wouldn't hear from him, but lo and behold, a half-hour later Morris walked into my office."
Dees was in San Diego to take Metzger's deposition in the case that ultimately resulted in a $12.5 million judgment against Metzger and WAR. The Center filed the suit on behalf of the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian student killed in 1988 by a Portland, Ore., Skinhead gang trained in WAR's methods.
Minutes after McElroy's chance meeting with Dees, Metzger filed a counter suit, stopping the deposition. Dees sought McElroy's help with the San Diego arm of the case.
"Well, the deposition did not take place," says Dees. "Metzger filed for bankruptcy and filed a civil suit against me. I walked into Jim's office and said, 'Well, you got yourself a client.'" In the weeks and years after that meeting, McElroy's role in the Metzger case grew. When the case was over, he assumed responsibility for seizing Metzger's assets and making sure they got to Seraw's family, including his son, Henock, in Ethopia. In the end, the funds from the settlement ensured Henock would have an American education, paid for by Tom Metzger.
In 1996, McElroy joined the Center's board of directors. Four years later, he assisted the Center in Keenan vs. Aryan Nations in Idaho, which resulted in a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations and its founder, Richard Butler. In 2003, he was elected board chairman. In addition to his work for the Center, McElroy has spent more than 25 years taking on civil rights cases in San Diego. McElroy has also worked with Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics to protect patients, staff and doctors from violence.
In 1994, Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy appointed McElroy to the State Commission on the Prevention of Hate Violence. He has testified before various congressional committees on hate crimes legislation, taught courses to lawyers on how to prosecute civil hate crimes cases and has published on the collection of judgments in civil rights cases.
In 1995, he received the Margaret Sanger Award given by Planned Parenthood for his work on behalf of women's ABORTION rights.
Womancare Health Center recognized McElroy in 1996 for "outstanding work in protecting the rights of women,"
Then there's the "kharmic balance" which is thoroughly described in the Yin/Yan description of God's Promise to Israel, and God's Guarantee of Punishment to Israel.
These things are all over the Bible. Best that you understand what kharma is all about before you go looking for it because, alas, the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek and the Hindus didn't speak any of those languages so they used different words.
Everyone uses "Amen" or "Om" though, so there's a start for you.
Get that bible out SoN, you need a refresher course.
FYI ping
People destined for hell, choose hell.
Why should their choice not be honored?
So, this guy's a ghoul too.
r_f, your truth, albeit shared by billions, is not the truth of others. We will all know the truth when our time comes. Until then focus on your truth and let others focus on theirs. If someone comes to you seeking truth, be a good guide, but there is really no reason to judge what someone elses belief is or is not.
Yeah, it had nothing to do with your not believing there is a Creator. Your cause could have been taken up by any number of Bible-thumping fundamentalist Baptist preachers. It just so happens that you are an atheist, and so is the guy that you're handing off the case to now that you're dead. Small world, huh?
".....and proud of the stand that defined his life. "
-- --
And that would be called: "loser".
God doesn't want people to go to hell.
So it just seems bizarre to me that some of his followers do want sinners to go there.
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