Jon Stewart Asks American Atheists About Ground Zero "cross" Y do U Give a shit?

[Judas BentHer]

LINK

[Violet]

Jon Stewart is at my cabin right now. I think he's kind of amusing.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Do I give a shit what what people in New York,or even Sydney do? No.

If it was here? I might write a letter to the paper complaining,but they never publish my letters. I don't know why; I've never called anyone a cunt.

Jon Stewart comes across to me as either a disingenous arsehole preaching to his choir, or not very bright. Can't be bother with him,or any of the other late night US TV clowns. (to be fair, he's nowhere NEAR as bad Letterman and his creepy band leader,both of whom make my skin crawl).

[Shell B]

Perhaps, as a compromise, we could build you an atomic symbol statue. But it has to be made out of billions of crosses.

I'm not against the cross at all. It has become a symbol of remembrance as much as it is a symbol of religion. However, that statement was utterly stupid.

[Autumnlicious]

I'm not against the cross at all. It has become a symbol of remembrance as much as it is a symbol of religion. However, that statement was utterly stupid.

I call bull. There are regions of the world where no doubt some of the victims of 9/11 came from which have a completely different cultural symbol of remembrance. So to think that the designers looked for the best symbol to represent all the victims seems a bit... unlikely given the following:

Instead of going for the usual drab and bland secular memorials, what they chose for the "symbol of remembrance" just happened to be the favored symbol of the country's largest religious majority. How convenient.

Instead of keeping with past tradition for memorials, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, they insisted on their specific design, a cross.

Against the cross. Just a giant thrust towards what the most religious want instead of keeping with the nontheistic memorials.

[Shell B]

I call bull. There are regions of the world where no doubt some of the victims of 9/11 came from which have a completely different cultural symbol of remembrance.

I'm not against putting up memorials that represent them as well.

Instead of going for the usual drab and bland secular memorials, they chose the "symbol of remembrance" that just happened to be the favored symbol of the country's largest religious majority. How convenient.

Sure, but it is the country's largest religious majority, so I'm not surprised. I'm not saying I do not prefer something else, but I'm not opposed to it. To be honest, all of the fighting over Ground Zero and memorials makes me ashamed to be American. Only a bunch of fucking childish assholes would be able to turn a tragedy into a political, religious or social debate. I mean that generally speaking regarding the entire history of the issue. That is not aimed at you.

Against the cross. Just a giant thrust towards what the most religious want instead of keeping with the nontheistic memorials -- Vietnam Veterans Memorial et al ( http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N6IFoS5MzpI/TQ...rial-8.jpg ).

Yeah, something else would be preferable, but my feelings on the subject are that further bickering is a travesty. I really cannot stress enough how embarrassed I am about the 9/11 "issues." If it were not the scene of such a horrible event, I would say bicker on, but all of my arguments regarding the hated mosque have to do with learning to move on and live together. I would be a hypocrite if I did not say the same thing about the memorial.

Atheists have no symbols. Therefore, I feel like it is up to those other cultures to speak up if they want something different. Why should we care if it is a cross? Crosses don't have that significance to us. The guy suing (representing those suing) is actually suggesting an atom in lieu of a cross. He can't be fucking serious. That's awful tacky for a memorial. However, I wouldn't argue about it. A memorial is a memorial. I refuse to be pissed unless it is something offensive.

[Faith No More]

I do think it's wrong to put only a Christian symbol for the memorial, but we American atheists have a PR war to win before we go fighting stuff like this. First we need to get past the undeserved stigma in this country and this lawsuit is only making it worse. I wouldn't want it up if I lived in New York, but strategically this was an idiotic move. I don't think the negative attention we are receiving from this is worth it. We need to pay attention to the bigger picture here, and concentrate on winning the war instead of these tiny battles. Our need to eradicate the negative stigma associated with us is of greater importance than this cross.

I'm not saying we should just bow down to the religious and their needs for the sake of image, but until the word atheist is no longer dirty, we need to stick to fighting the important stuff like keeping religion out of schools.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

@Moros

Agreed

In my opinion the US Vietnam memorial is the most touching I've ever seen and I've seen a few,all over the world. The Vietnamese also have some very good,simple memorials.

Most of ours for WW 1 and 2 are embarrassing, but our Vietnam memorial in Canberra is pretty good,in my opinion.

[cdog]

Yeah, if I were American, I wouldn't be too happy about a cross being a part of a national memorial. Same as those fuckwits wouldn't be happy about a hindu memorial being erected for say, the columbine school shooting. It's not much of a memorial if it only applies to certain victims.

[downbeatplumb]

in britain crosses are the default symbol, they are everywhere, we have war memorials in every town and the majority have a cross somewhere either in the design or form the structure of the memorial.

I have no problem with this.

Never thought of it as offensive, but then I live in a much more secular country which is nowhere near as polarised as america.