Show I The Seven Aphorisms I The following editorial editorial editorial edi edi- appeared in Saturdays Saturday's Washington Washington Washington Wash Wash- ington Post Pioneer Park in Pleasant Grove City Utah is home to a number of displays The city's first town hall sits on the property as does its first millstone and a replica log cabin Also shar sharing ng the space is a Ten Commandments monument donated in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles Not to be found on the premises The Seven Aphorisms Aphorism No 1 Summum is mind thought the universe isa isa isa is is- a mental creation And therein lies the conflict at the heart of a Supreme Court case argued on Wednesday The aphorisms are the guiding principles the Summum a small spiritual group founded in 1975 in Salt Lake City that embraces many of the tenets of Gnostic Christianity Pleasant Grove City declined the Summum's offer of ofa a monument saying that it neither reflected the city's his histo history ry n nor r was being donated civic by a group group roots roofs in me the community The Th Summum sued arguing that the city had violated the First Amendments Amendment's guarantee of free expression The group claims that because the city granted a spot in Pioneer the privately donated Ten Commandments monument it cannot deny the same accommodation to the Summum The logical conclusion Either the government allows no religious monuments or it must allow all Those Thos supporting the city say that this defies law and common sense The government is not suppressing the Summum's private speech but making legitimate decisions ons about which permanent structures are appropriate they say Public lands would b be e I littered with impertinent if not offensive displays if governments' governments hands w were re tied Three years ago the court decided albeit on different legal grounds cases that may be pertinent and could help resolve the Summum case without going to extremes In one case the court ruled unconstitutional the decision by local officials in 1999 to post Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky courthouses Such a contemporary state eff effort rt to focus attention upon a religious text is certa certainly likely to prove divisive the court concluded At Atthe the same time it upheld a Ten Commandments display that had been on the grounds of the Texas state capitol for some four decades Because the display was one of 38 monuments or markers commemorating Texas history it was properly displayed in a primarily nonreligious way the court concluded Pleasant Grove City would have raised suspicions if it had tried to block the Summum from passing out leaflets on public property But the I right literally to speak out in the public square does not mean there is a parallel right to erect a permanent monument on public land monument were erected in Pioneer Park today it probably would trigger criticism and possibly successful litigation But there it is and there it has been for nearly four decades The Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution does not require thi that t all religiously tinged monuments perched on government property be torn tom down It should now conclude that the mere existence of such monuments does not require governments to erect new ones |