Budda-Slayers of the Mojave

Just two weeks after winning protection from the Supreme Court, the simple Mojave Desert Memorial Cross was stolen in the night:

The 7-foot-tall metal cross in a 75-year-old war memorial that withstood the heat of the Mojave Desert and a blazing battle in the Supreme Court over its legality was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to federal officials.

"This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people's graves," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute, which represents the caretakers of the Mojave Desert War Memorial. "It's a disgraceful attack on the selfless sacrifice of our veterans. We will not rest until this memorial is re-installed."

The National Park Service says someone cut the metal bolts holding the metal-pipe cross to the top of the memorial's Sunrise Rock and made off with it Sunday night or before dawn on Monday.

Authorities had no immediate motive for the theft but National Park Service officials are considering a range of ideas from scrap metal scavengers to people "with an interest in the case," said Park Service spokeswoman Linda Slater.

Let's be very frank: no thief would trudge to the cross' remote location to remove a vessel of metal filled with concrete that has little or no scrap value. The cross was removed by an individual or group that dimly thinks the cross represents a religious argument instead of of a moment in time where the dead of war were honored with such symbols as a sign of respect and remembrance.

The theft of the Mojave Desert Memorial Cross is a vengeful act committed by small minds that can only grasp their present anger and self-righteous rage. They lack empathy and respect for their fellow citizens who valued the cross as a respectful memorial, lack respect for our laws and system of justice, and are too dim to grasp the historical context of such a symbol.

Another cross will go up if this one is not recovered, and perhaps it will be erected in such a way to make it more difficult to desecrate.

That saddest part of this crime is that those simpletons that removed the Mojave Desert Memorial Cross probably think of themselves as enlightened and progressive in some way. The stark reality is that they harbor the same tolerance, intellectual heft, and sensitivity as the Taliban.