Nephew of WWI veteran honored by Woonsocket Memorial speaks out

[struggle4progress]

Honoree's nephew says he's ready for the battle
April 30, 2012
By
RUSS OLIVO
[e-mail]

WOONSOCKET — It doesn’t matter that his uncle is the soldier for whom the World War I monument was dedicated ... Later in the day, Jolicoeur and his sister, Anita Wilbur, a Woonsocket resident, met with Mayor Leo T. Fontaine for a briefing on the city’s developing confrontation over the monument with the Freedom From Religion Foundation ... The rally, set to begin at 4:30 p.m., was organized by Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, former adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard, who described the FFRF’s actions as an attack on veterans. A spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence said Bishop Thomas Tobin has been invited to speak at the event, but he won’t be able to say for sure whether he will be able to accept the offer until sometime today. WPRO radio host John DePetro is to serve as moderator for the event, which is expected to draw numerous veterans, according to the mayor ... “It does feel weird for a small-city military monument to make big-time news,” he says. “Some of it’s even national news.”

http://www.woonsocketcall.com/node/5155

City opts to fight for memorial
April 30, 2012
By
RUSS OLIVO
[e-mail]

WOONSOCKET — ... Buoyed by offers of free legal assistance and an outpouring of public support, the City Council will decide tonight whether to establish a defense fund to keep the monument at Place Jolicoeur, in the parking lot of Fire Station No. 2, with the Latin cross intact.
“Clearly the level of support we’ve received is an indication of how strongly people around the country feel about the monument,” said Mayor Leo T. Fontaine. “The support they’re offering may enable us to move forward with a defense of a legal claim against the monument, if one is ever filed.” ...

http://www.woonsocketcall.com/node/5156

Defense fund set up in RI for memorial with cross
By: Wire Reports | The Associated Press
Published: April 30, 2012

WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- The city of Woonsocket has set up a war memorial defense fund in case there's a legal challenge to the constitutionality of a monument on city property that is topped with a cross ...

http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2012/apr/30/defense-fund-set-ri-memorial-cross-ar-1018530/

[Goblinmonger]

1. yea for them, I guess

Screw the 1st Amendment.

[rug]

2. It's good to see the human beings in this.

[cbayer]

3. Agree. It's always more complicated than it appears on paper.

However, that very complication is why we have laws, imo, and I think the atheist group has a case here.

[rug]

4. That's what courts are for.

Although the historicity of this marker versus First Amendment claims will make an interesting contest.

"The storied marker was dedicated amid much fanfare to the memory of Private William Jolicoeur, a Woonsocket resident killed in World War I. Marshal Ferdinand Foch, a Frenchman who was the supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, traveled to Woonsocket to dedicate the monument on Nov. 13, 1921. The monument was later rededicated in May 1952 in memory of three brothers, Alexandre, Henri and Louis Gagne, after all three were killed in World War II.

"Some city officials say the white cross on the monument is not a religious symbol, but a historical artifact intended to replicate the crosses on the gravesites of Jolicoeur, and thousands of other U.S. servicemen, at the location where they are actually buried, in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France."

[cbayer]

5. Interesting argument.

When one of our atheist members here was sporting a white cross as an avatar, I was told repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that is was not a religious symbol at all.

[struggle4progress]

6. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery

[Goblinmonger]

7. Which is in France

and this memorial resides in the U.S.

Go ahead and tell me those crosses aren't religious.

[Sinistrous]

8. They are religious.

Jewish soldiers interred there were provided headstones that incorporated the Star of David.