The statue is placed!

[murielm99]

The Demeter statue will be on the new judicial center lawn.

The first time they voted on it, the vote was 16-6. That was in February. When the right-wing religious started their pressure, a motion was made to rescind the acceptance of the statue.

It turns out that the religious right in this county was used very cynically. The board member who wanted the statue rescinded went to them and asked them to object. He did not do this for any noble reasons, but because he was against the new courthouse from the beginning. He wanted to build a Morton building, or nothing at all. He has tried to obstruct anything connected with the new building.

Anyway, the name of the statue was changed, so the guy had to withdraw his motion. The new motion to accept the statue with the new name passed 11-9. It was close. That is what pressure will do.

The man who wanted the fictitious Madison quote on a plaque with the Ten Commandments has agreed to table his motion until he does more research. I worked closely with him, because he was getting the votes for the statue. I think he will find that the Ten Commandments don't belong in a government building. Another reason he backed off is that TV stations in Rockford started calling him. One well-placed tip did the trick.

I hope we have seen the last of this. I hope the religious right will find some new thing to yelp about. Those of us who wanted the statue worked hard on its behalf.

The religious right never learns. They allowed themselves to be used in this case, and they ended up with nothing. How many times does this have to happen to them?

[shrike]

1. Cool

Goddess of agriculture, how appropriate.

[realisticphish]

2. awesome

glad to see it turn out well; i know it was getting iffy

:toast:

post a pic when they get it put in

[okasha]

3. What dfid they wind up naming her,

and what is a Morton building?

[murielm99]

5. They named her

Agriculture: Mother of Civilization.

Morton buildings are steel-clad wood framed buildings that you see on farms. They are pole buildings. I have seen a few churches and businesses build them, but they are mostly farm buildings, like horse barns and storage buildings. They are not appropriate for a courthouse, I believe.

My daughter told me that when she played high school basketball, they went to a school that had added a Morton building as a free-standing gym. She said it was terrible and cheap. The gym floor was some type of rubber, and hard to play on.

There are many advantages to Morton buildings, in the proper setting. But this guy is just a cheapskate. He did not really want a new judicial center at all, and it was much-needed.

[okasha]

6. Oh my. Demeter has the last laugh.

Her name can be construed as both Earth Mother and Mother Goddess, but also goes back to an older Indo-European root has to do with the distribution of land and agricultural products.

[Critters2]

7. It's true!

Agriculture IS the mother of civilization!

Well done!!

[davidinalameda]

4. as many times as it takes to put them under

they're a danger to the Christian Church as a whole