A friend of mine from Dixie County is to thank for re-typing the entire text of an long open letter that appeared in the LTE section of the
Dixie County Advocate this week (2A). It is beautifully articulate and wonderfully wise. It leaves the "logic" of the decision to place the monument there in a heap of smoking ruin. I'm also glad the paper allowed it to be printed.
And...so much for the, "No one from here disagrees with it!" defense:
"An Open Letter to the Citizens of Dixie County, My Birthplace"
Let us gut the old saw we all know, and stand it on its head. Let me ask not what we can do for my country, but what our county, viz., Dixie County, can do for us. Apparently this is made possible by a new twist of county commission reasoning. For I, born in Cross City and native resident there for the first 17 years of my life, have already served my country, in Tokyo and Yokohama Harbor, persuasively 9,000 miles from home.
To return to what? To return to a County Commission, a half-century later only to witness the wholesale abandonment of the U.S. Constitution, and a supposed flouting of its core principles? Do not the commission members grasp the intent of the 1st Amendment to THE BILL OF RIGHTS of the Constitution, effecting the clear separation of church and state, or do the governing fathers of today's rural hamlet hugging the Nature Coast of Florida devise itself somehow separate and apart, and not an entity to otherwise obey our sacred foundations and way of life?
Before the county fathers would ever submit to the whim of a local major contributor, to have a semblance of the Ten Commandments monument placed literally at the courthouse steps, at its seat of power, did the commission even bother to entertain the question of its overall appropriateness, and to whether such placement would meet legal muster? Did its members plumb the learned opinions of the township's elder statesmen, or its retired education? I think not.
Back in the late Forties, my uncle served as Principal of Dixie County High School, pinchhitting as an instructor of civics, government, English and algebra. It was Uncle Marshall Davies who had as pupils the grandfathers of the kids who grew up to be today's crop of sitting commissioners. Uncle Marshall's prime intent was to see that all the children in his realm of influence would grow and learn to their educational pace, and above all become economically self-sufficient. Times and conditions were so utterly raw and hard back in those days, but he was thorough and self-motivated to exact the measure of each and every student, for that is the sole function and ambition of an educator. But now to what avail, if these children of my uncle's pupils evolved to commit today's malfeasance in elected office? Yes, malfeasance!
Another blunder and misstep of the commission is to have adopted the faulty logic of its own legal guide, the attorney advising the panel. The attorney abandoned logic, emotionally blending with the religious fervor of the crowd to tell Fox TV network that Dixie is Dixie, and the balance of the nation could go chase itself. I suspect that when this egregious abuse of judgment is said and done, that lawyer will find himself hauled before The Florida Bar and made to show cause why he should be allowed to keep his license to practice law. This stems from the fact that there is clear precedent barring such a monument in its particular location, viz., the Establishment Clause. Never in my day would I have dreamed of so callous a scenario. And here I was a half-century ago, during the military years, trying to save the country, not bury the country, as is being done in such cavalier fashion today.
This scenario, if played out, and somehow not interrupted, would see a petition filed, addressed in Federal court, and the first sitting magistrate hearing the case handing down an order mandating the effective removal of The Rock from the courthouse steps property. Should the members of the Commission self-righteously disobey, another order would be entered dispatching the United States Marshals Service, and attendant force, as deemed necessary. The commissioners would be placed in large black vans and transported to Jacksonville for detention. Should local police officials dare to intervene, they too would be stripped and transported to lockup and the lot of then cited for contempt. Google's lenses would peer from the heavens, capturing the moment, that all here is not fun and games.
This, my friends, is what you do not know, and what you should begin knowing. One simply does not set out to find himself on the muzzle end of a federal court order. And for good reason, otherwise the entire nation would splinter into chaos. A very similar situation, as relates to this case, played out just a while ago, which saw the chief justice of a state supreme court driven from office on a federal contempt citation, and finally disbarred from the practice of law itself. My Word, does not Cross City begin to get the drift of walking this thin line?
As I see it, there does exist a legal out, a plausible exit, and that too is gracious in the process. The prime mover, the major sponsor of the Big Rock project who came forward to make the
endeavor financially possible, could adopt a change of heart, and entreat the commission to reverse its efforts and remove the monolith. Mister Joe could then step in, lasso his Rock, and drag it to the far northwest quadrant of his cow pasture, for the cows to dwell upon while contemplating the Absolute Idea existing in time and space.
Within a month or two the good townsfolk would begin to savor how strangely sweeter the milk. Yes, this is the upside, and just look at the enormous amount of money the county saved in not
having to fight this legal monster, a case unwinnable on its face, a case to forever stain the legitimacy of the county, a case in effect rendered moot before it was to get off the ground. Because Mister Joe finally saw the courage to do the right thing and tacitly agree to withdraw the monument, before the authorities really noticed. But the county must go about its duty and act quickly now, if it wants to preserve its legacy.
My intent here is not to be harsh, but to be forthright.
After all, I was born 70 years ago in Cross City, less than a quarter-mile from the old courthouse's eastern steps. I and friends played as kids on and around those steps in the far distant yesteryear. I admire my little hometown, and ache for its relative simplicity and laid-back demeanor. But the way the county commission of today measures simplicity, against being downright simple, might find the two mutually exclusive. Therein lies this problem.
Page Davies
DCHS Class of 1954
Clearwater, FL
It makes me cry tears of joy. :-)
I found it interesting that in the paper's mention of the last Commission meeting, not one peep about the 10C case appeared. I've written Candace Corbin about getting a copy of the last few meetings' transcripts.
The attorney he mentioned was Joe Lander, and you can see Joe's emotive "defense" of the county's actions here on YouTube. My detailed analysis of the legal issues here, and everything I've written on this situation, including extensive local media coverage, here.
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