Keith Taylor is a retired navy officer.
It's over. The people have spoken yet another time and the cross will now
continue to sit atop Mount Soledad until the next judge speaks on the matter.
Then the previous rulings will be upheld, and it'll be ordered removed once
again. At that time our talk show hosts will mount another petition drive and
we'll have yet another referendum approved. This will keep on until the city
cannot find another penny to spend tilting at windmills. I figure in a week or
so.
Any would-be opponent, especially a politician, who supports
honoring any court decision to take down the cross best be mum about it.
Feelings are running high. About the only guy willing to speak out is the guy
who filed suit.
He's not only in the minority, he's vilified as a demon.
Although he has a first name, you wouldn't know it from reading about him in the
papers, listening to the radio, or watching TV. Phillip Paulson morphed into
"atheist Paulson." His epithet doesn't even get a capital "A."
Paulson
the atheist would easily top any local poll of "most hated person," especially
when that cross thing comes up. And much more especially when the talk-show
jingoists get going. Such animus when those "patriots" spit out
"atheist."
That animus hasn't been diminished by the fact that since
atheist Paulson won his 1989 suit to have an obvious religious symbol removed
from public property, it has withstood every challenge since.
But who on
earth is this demon? Is he so unpatriotic that he'd avoid service to save his
own skin? Does he hate veterans so much that he insists a war memorial be torn
down? Does he disrespect religion?
I know him well and the answers to
are all "no." To start with, far from being a demon, he's a big jovial guy with
a terrific sense of humor. In those gatherings where he's not ostracized for
refusing to go along with any one of America's 1,350 versions of the one true
God, he is generally the center of attention. He is one of those oddities, too.
He listens to and laughs at other's jokes, especially about himself.
And
patriotic? If patriotism is measured by how one takes up arms for his country,
atheist Paulson is super patriotic. He volunteered for the draft. Then he served
as a light weapons infantryman and as a paratrooper from September 1966 to
January 1968. This included an extension he volunteered for.
Paulson the
atheist took part in dozens of major battles, including what may have been the
bloodiest of the war, Dak To. During that battle, his company started out with
200 men and a mere 40 walked off the hill. More than half were killed. He
carried many in his arms to the rescue helicopters. Despite all that he isn't
eligible to join the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Both
require a belief in god. Phil the atheist isn't religious but he's honest.
Although often urged to do so, atheist Phil refuses to cop out with the old "I
believe in a higher power."
Just for reference, his major detractors,
talk show hosts Roger Hedgecock and Rick Roberts never served a day in the
service let alone nearly 18 months of continuous combat. Another severe critic
of atheist Paulson is Mark Larson of station KOGO. I left word at the station
asking if Larson had served. I received no reply.
Hate the cross on the
mountain? Well atheist Phil doesn't like it there. That's apparent, but he's the
only one who calls it what ought to be obvious to everybody. It describes it as
an unmistakable symbol of Christianity. Most of those who fight so hard to keep
it insist it's a war memorial.
It may be now, but it was specifically
not a war memorial when it was erected. Only after atheist Paulson filed his
suit were the trappings of a memorial added.
Some go to great lengths to
deny that it's a Christian symbol. Back in the early '90s Bill Kellogg, the head
of the Mount Soledad Memorial Association even said, "It's in the eye of the
beholder."
Phil the atheist's answer that it is a Christian symbol was
more direct and honest. Unfortunately, honesty gets left behind when religion is
being defended.
That's never more true than when an honest man is being
savaged simply because he won't pretend to believe that a woman who talked to a
snake and other curious stories.
Keith Taylor can be reached at [email protected].
"MEET YOUR LOCAL ATHEIST" FIRST APPEARED @ VOICE OF SAN DIEGO Aug. 3, 2005
