San Diego (special) -- San Diego City Attorney Casey S. Gwinn has recommended that the City of San Diego follow a suggestion made by our newspaper and by other parties to get the controversial issue of the Mount Soledad Cross behind us.

He has recommended that the 1/2 acre of land on Mount Soledad bounded by the traffic circle be officially designated by the city government as a place for a privately-owned memorial for veterans. And, he said, the land should be sold at public auction expressly for that purpose.

If a group desiring to keep the large cross atop Mount Soledad were to win the bidding, the cross would stay as the veteran's memorial its supporters say it is. If, on the other hand, a group desiring to take down the cross and replace it with something more universal were to win, the cross would come down and perhaps a memorial honoring Christians and non-Christians alike might go up.

The atheists who brought the suit in the first place oppose the solution, saying it does not and should not pass legal muster. Others say even if U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. rules the plan to be legal (as the city hopes he will at a hearing next week), the solution is less than ideal. For example, Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, says regardless of whether the auction is legal or not, he thinks disposing of such beautiful public land atop Mount Soledad is poor land use policy. He argues that the land should remain in the public's hands. "The land is not the problem; what's on it is," he says. The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee are among the Jewish organizations which have spoken out on separation of church and state issues, even filing "friend of the court" briefs challenging the cross's continued presence on city-owned land.

The Nount Soledad Cross

After Judge Thompson agreed the cross was unconstitutional, the city sold a small parcel of land under the cross to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association in an attempt to eliminate the state-religion conflict. However, as no other group was permitted to make a bid for the land, Judge Thompson subsequently ruled thatthe sale showed a preference for one religion over another. The only reason for the sale was to preserve the cross.

Now the City of San Diego is in the process of negotiating to buy back the parcel of land from the Mount Soledad Memorial Association for the express purpose of selling it to the highest bidder.

As respectful as I am of Morris Casuto's opinions (and I am a big admirer of his), I believe the Jewish community should endorse Gwinn's proposal for an auction. 

Ideal land use or not for Mount Soledad, the plan to have a privately-owned veterans memorial satisfies our community's more important constitutional concerns--that there should be no expressed or implied preference on the part of the state (or the county or city) for any religion.

My guess is that people who want to keep the cross up will be the only serious bidders for the property. So be it. The issue never was the cross, itself; it was where the cross was located. Displaying religious symbols on private land should be cherished as an American right, whether it be our religious symbol or someone else's.

If any members of the Jewish community are thinking of putting in a competitive bid for that land, I would urge them not to do so. Please give your money instead to the United Jewish Federation or to a Jewish agency or a synagogue. Rather than sucumbing to any urge to have dueling religious symbols, please let your money be used in substantive ways to help your fellow Jews.

The city government should enact one very strong requirement for the eventual winner of the bidding. The property within the traffic circle must be clearly posted as belonging to private property owners, and not to the city government. That way everyone will know that if it's a cross, its a private cross, not a public one.

And let us put this issue, at long last, to rest.