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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 11/06/2006 : 16:52:48
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This is some information I stumbled onto today. It seems that the official Seal of the County of Los Angeles was changed to be religion-neutral back in 2004. This happened by odd coincidence after the ACLU threatened to sue over the use of a Christian cross in the then-existing Seal
The First Seal, used from 1887-1957, was the simple one shown below:
Nothing controversial (or particularly interesting) about that Seal. Just a bunch of grapes, and a few obvious words.
But in 1957, the Second Seal was designed and adopted:
Now we have more artwork, complete with symbolism. According to Wiki: quote:
The old Los Angeles County seal, designed by former county supervisor Kenneth Hahn in 1957.
The center features an image of Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees. It represented the region's agriculture. On the left, it displays engineering instruments, (relating to the industrial construction complex of the county's vital contribution to the conquest of space), a Spanish Galleon (specifically the San Salvador), and a tuna fish, representing the fishing industry.
On the right, it features oil derricks representing oil fields that were discovered on Signal Hill, a cross representing the influence of the church and the missions of California, the Hollywood Bowl, indicating cultural activities, and two stars, which represent the county's motion picture and television industries, and a cow, representing the dairy industry.
But then the mean old ACLU, the organization that Faux journalist Bill O'Reilly called "the most dangerous organization in the United States of America right now," called attention to the cross in this official government Seal, threatening to sue to have it removed. Without acknowledging or thanking the ACLU for pointing out the problem, the County of Los Angeles swiftly changed its Seal. The Third Seal is below:
Again according to Wiki: quote:
Pomona and the oil towers were voluntarily removed without references by the ACLU. It now portrays an image of a Native American woman, representing the early inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin. The stars and an image of the Hollywood Bowl (originally in the middle right column, also where the cross was originally placed) replaced the oil towers. The cross was removed, which was replaced with an image of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, representing the historic role of the missions in the settlement of the Los Angeles region. The cow represents the dairy industry.
Looks good to me! The picture of Mission San Gabriel seems historically appropriate, unlike the former cross, a purely religious symbol. I miss Pomona, but she could be construed as the Pagan goddess she was, and the Native American woman is a fine replacement.
See, government institutions and the ACLU can work together to provide a religion-neutral secular environment for all our citizens, even if the government in question might childishly refuse to admit its cooperation.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 11/06/2006 22:15:33
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