Let the majority's will prevail on Jesus statue

Recently, while watching “Jeopardy,” I saw a question that informed us the origin of the typical Rooster atop most traditional weather vanes. It turns out that it stems back to the New Testament when Jesus told Peter that before the cock crowed, he would deny him thrice.

While I found this interesting and informative, I was suddenly filled with a sense of dread, knowing that, armed with this knowledge, the Freedom From Religion party will more than likely now be canvassing America demanding that all public weather vanes be stripped of poultry, for fear of their being reminded that there are other people sharing their country that have the audacity to believe in God!

It has been more years than I care to admit since I attended high school political science classes, but as I recall, a democracy is a form of government where the majority of the people get to determine how the entirety of the populace lives. Goes something like that, with a few minor glitches thrown in, just to make things interesting, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t set up so a few vocal miscreants can dictate their wishes over the masses.

That being the case, I am having some degree of difficulty understanding why it is that the Freedom From Religion, or the United Atheist League, or the Guys Against God, or the Cats Against Christ, or whatever the heck they want to be called are able to dictate whether a statue of Jesus can remain on the face of Big Mountain.

Unless I am mistaken, they are few, and we are many. My father was instrumental in placing the statue there. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and I have pictures of him there working on the placement of it some 60 years ago. He told me personally that the main reason for the statue’s placement was in remembrance of all those that had served in the armed forces, and who would serve this great nation in the future.

He was a veteran of World War II, and was proud to have fought for the right of the minority to voice their opinions, but he was also proud to have fought to uphold our way of living, and for the majority’s right to rule. I am quite sure that he shared that belief with almost all veterans, past and present. Where did we lose our way, and allow the few to dictate to the many?

The lawsuit that was filed by the few was about to be dismissed by the court, because the Wisconsin based group that was offended by the statue didn’t have anyone local that was actually “harmed” by the presence of the statue. Well thank goodness they scrounged around and were lucky enough to find William Cox living within 15 miles of “ground zero,” and he was apparently offended every time he swooshed down the slopes.  

Too bad Mr. Cox is unable to take one of the many other chairs on Big Mountain, or turn right off of Chair 2, or turn his head if he passes by, or look at his feet for two seconds, or any number of options one might have to keep from being offended by the statue in question. Those options are apparently not acceptable, and only the complete removal of the statue will suffice in making Mr. Cox’s skiing down the mountain a truly enjoyable experience for him and his ilk.

We are losing our way, America.

This is how it is supposed to work. Take a vote, and do what the majority deems appropriate. Until that happens, I strongly suggest the statue of Jesus remain where it is. We have got to stop allowing the vocal minority to dictate how we live. If they want to put it up to a vote, and the majority of America wants that statue removed from Big Mountain, I will volunteer to help haul it down from its current home myself, but until that happens, I say it is within our rights to leave it where it is, and not their right to have it removed.

I’m not sure what the cost would be to bring the statue down from where it has long been standing, but seeing as we are dealing with only one person admitting to being offended by it, I might suggest that it would cost much less to purchase a one way ticket to move Mr. Cox to Russia or any other Godless country of his choosing where I’m quite sure he could travel much more than 15 miles without having to worry about being offended by a statue of Jesus. I’ll even start the collection.

Fopp is a resident of Kalispell.