Post by AuntieSocial on Nov 26, 2003 12:42:20 GMT -5
Cheyenne council decides 10 Commandments issue
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By: Associated Press
Published: November 25, 2003
Publication: Billings Gazette
CHEYENNE — The City Council decided to keep a Ten Commandments monument in a city park but include it in a new area containing monuments with other historical documents.
The action Monday night was in response to lawsuits filed nationally by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says such public displays of Ten Commandments on public property are illegal, and requests made to Casper and Cheyenne officials by the controversial Rev. Fred Phelps of Kansas to put up a monument denouncing homosexuality and murdered University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.
The council had considered moving the Ten Commandments monument out of the park and setting it alongside existing monuments to legal history.
But residents filled City Council Chambers and spoke in opposition to moving the Ten Commandments, which were given to the city by the Eagles club in the 1970s.
"We will give our lives to protect the Ten Commandments in Lions Park," said Jim Powell, president of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles 128 in Cheyenne.
The Ten Commandments will be moved from their current location in the park to make room for a planned parking lot. In addition, monuments to the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Wyoming Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta and other such historical documents that serve as the basis for the nation’s and state’s laws would be set up in the same area.
The resolution directs the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to decide exactly where in the park the monument area will go.
Mayor Jack Spiker said building the display could cost as much as $40,000.
Copyright © 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
Click here to read the article on the original site
By: Associated Press
Published: November 25, 2003
Publication: Billings Gazette
CHEYENNE — The City Council decided to keep a Ten Commandments monument in a city park but include it in a new area containing monuments with other historical documents.
The action Monday night was in response to lawsuits filed nationally by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says such public displays of Ten Commandments on public property are illegal, and requests made to Casper and Cheyenne officials by the controversial Rev. Fred Phelps of Kansas to put up a monument denouncing homosexuality and murdered University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.
The council had considered moving the Ten Commandments monument out of the park and setting it alongside existing monuments to legal history.
But residents filled City Council Chambers and spoke in opposition to moving the Ten Commandments, which were given to the city by the Eagles club in the 1970s.
"We will give our lives to protect the Ten Commandments in Lions Park," said Jim Powell, president of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles 128 in Cheyenne.
The Ten Commandments will be moved from their current location in the park to make room for a planned parking lot. In addition, monuments to the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Wyoming Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta and other such historical documents that serve as the basis for the nation’s and state’s laws would be set up in the same area.
The resolution directs the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to decide exactly where in the park the monument area will go.
Mayor Jack Spiker said building the display could cost as much as $40,000.
Copyright © 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
