[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H1586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FEDERAL COURT DISRESPECTS WORLD WAR I VETERANS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in 1925, the American Legion erected a 
memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, to honor the 49 men who were killed 
in World War I. The mothers of those who died decided to erect a large 
cross to mirror the cross-shaped grave markers in the foreign 
cemeteries where their sons were buried. The 40-foot-tall memorial 
became known as the Peace Cross.
  Even though the monument is secular, and after almost 100 years, an 
agnostic Federal court ruled the historic monument must be torn down, 
all because it is in the shape of a cross.
  The wrong-headed decision to tear down the 93-year-old monument is 
proof that this Federal court has no respect for the sacrifices of 
Americans killed in World War I. Instead of destroying monuments, we 
should erect more.
  What is next? Are Federal judges going to chisel off the crosses on 
grave markers at veterans' cemeteries?
  We will see.
  Keep the Memorial Peace Cross memorial. Heaven forbid, don't remove 
the cross.
  And that is just the way it is.

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