Proposed Monument To Secular Government Raises Opposition

Yesterday's Cumberland (MD) Times-News reports on a battle over monuments on public property that has a new twist. Edward W. Taylor Jr., of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, is objecting to the decision by the Allegany County(MD) Board of Commissioners to allow a monument honoring the U.S. Constitution to be placed on the county court house lawn. It would join a statue of George Washington and a Ten Commandments monument already there. The problem, however, according to opponents is that the new monument will contain an engraving that it was donated by Citizens for a Secular Government. Taylor says that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and that the word "secular" should not be included on a monument on public property. He says that backers should place the monument on provate property if they want to put it up. The person behind the new monument to the Constitution is Dr. Jeffrey Davis who, in 2004, led an unsuccessful effort to have the Ten Commandments monument removed from the court house lawn.