Listen up, Utah!
You should stop quibbling with the courts and do the right thing—take Jesus and religion out of the equation in your quest to identify and honor those troopers that have died while protecting the citizens of your state. Do away with the cross, at least with the top part of it. Everybody will remember that it was a cross and in their memory it will still be a cross. And trust me, the courts will not order the modified structure demolished. The conversion can be done cheaply and quickly and there is nothing the courts can do to stop it or reverse it or change the modification. It’s so simple it’s a wonder no one has thought of it before now. Leave it to me, your humble writer, to come up with a suggestion that will settle the problems once and for all, and will offend no one, not even Christians.
This is the answer:
Leave the monuments exactly where they are—remove that part of each monument that stands above the crossbar, and the result is what you see in the image on the right. Just change each cross to a capital Tee, with the understanding that the capital Tee stands for Trooper, the noble profession of the officers that are being honored and memorialized by the monuments. The crossbar of the Tee will still provide space for the personal information on each trooper.
It’s only fair—what is the religious makeup of Utah’s state troopers? Are there any Jews, Agnostics, Muslims, Hindus, Athiests, Buddists, Taiosts, Wiccans, Pagans, Druids or Scientologists listed on the rolls of Utah’s troopers? There are legions more of those that profess to embrace religions other than Christianity, and you can be assured that none would want the cross to be used as their memorial.
If your rolls include such persons, how will they be honored if they die in service to the state? Certainly not with the Christian cross—none of those troopers are Christians, and neither they nor their loved ones would agree for a cross to be erected in their memory. They would, however, agree to the use of a capital Tee in recognition of their contributions to society and to honor their memory. And if there are none presently on the force, would you deny employment as a trooper based on an applicant’s religion being other than Christian? Of course not—talk about a case that would lose in court—it would never get out of your local courts.
So let’s do it, Utah—let’s do it now before destroying all the crosses. Simply modify them as suggested and make the courts and the atheists and all the rest of the nit pickers happy—they may change their stance and decide that the Tees are an eyesore and are obstructing Utah’s magnificent views, but that one will sail through the courts on your side!
That’s my suggestion and I’m sticking to it!
PeeEss: I offer this suggestion without any anticipation of remuneration, but I would appreciate a word of thanks!
The King of Texas 