Resident Opposes Religious Symbols on Town Property

To the Editor:

I write this letter in opposition to the Menorah lighting on Monroe's Town Green tomorrow. Religious symbols on public land using taxpayer dollars violates the Constitution and individual freedoms. This offends me as a citizen of Monroe just as much as it offends me as a libertarian and an atheist.

Martin Luther was a major influence on how our founding fathers thought about separation of Church and State. Luther believed that every individual should form his own relationship relative to God. He knew that this relationship should not be left up to the Government to force upon us. The founding fathers put this notion into our Constitution with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

A Menorah is a religious symbol (not unlike a Nativity scene would be) with religious significance that has no right being on public property that my tax money goes towards.

If there is an individual volunteer in Monroe who would like to place this Menorah on private property, then I say bravo! Display it with pride and in all its beauty. But these religious symbols have no place in our town square. It violates the separation of church and state and our individual rights as citizens of Monroe. We all have different beliefs in Monroe. Some are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists and a variety of other faiths. All should be respected. Our government should be a secular place for all to enjoy.

I have contacted the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, the American Atheists and the Connecticut ACLU to join me in this fight. I hope that more residents will join me in honoring the separation of church and state and let Monroe Town Hall see that religious symbolism on government land, or funded in any way by taxpayer dollars, should not be allowed.

Chris Catropa,

Monroe Resident