No Atheists at Arlington West
Posted on 05. Apr, 2009 by Eric Broze in Images
Last summer I happened to visit Arlington West, in Santa Monica, California. According to the website, for those not familiar:
Every Sunday from sunrise to sunset, a temporary memorial is created on the beaches of Southern California. Located just north of the world famous pier at Santa Monica, California and at the Sterns Wharf in Santa Barbara, the Arlington West Memorial, a project of Veterans For Peace, offers visitors a graceful, visually and emotionally powerful, place for reflection.
It continues to say:
As one stands looking out over the sea of crosses, one will notice a thread of red crosses standing among the white ones. As the numbers of American lives lost increases daily, one red cross is representative of 10 military personnel each. For those who’ve lost their lives within the week past are flag draped coffins with blue crosses positioned in front of each of these.
Half staff and flag covered coffins on the beach.
Where are the Atheists?
Arlington West is “Non-Partisan and Non-Sectarian”, as this claim is prominently displayed several times on the site. There are Stars of David to represent Jews and Crescents to represent those or Muslim faith and it seems a reasonable effort is made every week to construct this monument to the futility of war, every week.
Looking across sea the crosses,stars and crescents, however, I cannot happen to think of how many of these represent my fellow Atheists, who serve and die in the military. Don’t get me wrong, it seems like a good organization and you can volunteer here, but really, how would I be represented at Arlington West?
My point is, should I have died in service of my country, I would not want my death icon to be a cross by default. During my time of naval service (1988-1992), Atheist was not a valid choice on Dog Tags, rather “norelpref”, for No Religious Preference,was the only close alternative. I do not know if this has changed, but no matter.
Those under the designation of “No Religious Preference” are typically treated as non-denominational Christians, which would be a extreme insult to an Atheist, or at least most I know. ( I know quite a few).
So this brings up a few issues.
Arlington West viewed from Santa Monica Pier
When a question is asked on official government forms, would Atheism be a valid choice? If so, does this confuse the case that Atheism is not a religion, at least in the mind of the public?
Should we, as Atheists, have a symbol or not. If so, which one?
Statistically speaking, there are Atheists in foxholes, but how do we represent this with our memorials? I would rather a straight stick, or empty space as a place holder in the example of Arlington West.
What do you think?
Raoul
06. Apr, 2009
Tell VFP’s Mark Anderson that he’s a scum bag for telling a Gold Star Mom who requested they stop using he son’s name, “Families don’t get to make that decision.”
mureurgestDuG
09. Apr, 2009
FANTASTIC!
Kirsten Lucas
13. Jan, 2010
How about a red flame? Seems appropriate.
Cynthia
27. Jan, 2010
They should all be a stick. If someone wants a higher authority designation, that would be on the stick. We could use the Darwin anti-fish symbol, but personally I have always been against the idea that we need to show what we are not. We should use the happy humanist symbol, which conveys the point that we don’t need “It” to be happy. We’re here–just here–get used to it.
Kirsten Lucas
17. Feb, 2010
Cynthia, You said “We’re here–just here–get used to it.” The problem is then you’ll be THERE- Where’s there?- You don’t know but you better HOPE you get used to it!
Bummer if you are wrong. If I am wrong, I am no worse off for it.
Eric
18. Feb, 2010
Hi Kirsten – your point seems like a very simple version of Pascal’s Wager.
Read more about it here:
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismatheistsriskhell/a/AtheismRisk.htm