City officials recently learned that the memorial, which ended up at the Canandaigua American Legion Post's Trail of Remembrance last week, may have been unconstitutional because it depicts a child's hands joined and fingers extended toward heaven, a pose associated with Christian prayer.Mayor Donald Cass said the matter was recently brought to his attention, and city Attorney A. Clark Cannon told him he will look into it.Cass said it doesn't matter now, because if a monument is erected in the city, it will have a different design.
In a letter to the editor in today's Times, Michael G. Bersani of Geneva said placing the monument on city property would have violated the First Amendment. Bersani is an attorney who works in Auburn and is a member of the Geneva Human Rights Commission.
Bersani cites a 1989 Supreme Court decision in the County of Allegheny v. the American Civil Liberties Union's Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, where the court held that the county had violated the U.S. Constitution by displaying a crèche and a menorah in a public place.
Bersani also points to political concerns, including possibly further isolating Islamic people who may believe the president's "War Against Terrorism'' is a crusade against Islam. The monument could also cause Jews and Muslims to feel more excluded, Bersani wrote.
The monument, which also featured a firefighter and police officer raising a U.S. flag and the words "Together We Stand," with the date of the attacks at the bottom, was donated by the Fratto family, which owns Geneva Granite Co.
Cass said he would present a resolution at Wednesday's City Council meeting, authorizing him to form a committee to determine the best location and most appropriate type of monument to the heroes and victims of the Sept. 11 tragedies.
The monument was originally offered to the city and was going to be placed at the park at Exchange and Lake streets. A dedication ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 24, was postponed only days before because of concerns from a city councilor who felt the matter needed to be discussed by the Council.
When the ceremony was postponed and work on erecting the monument stopped, the Frattos approached the Canandaigua American Legion Post, which accepted the donation.
The move has angered many city residents, and the majority of city councilors, who said they felt the monument should have been erected in Geneva and required no additional discussion.
