Honoring All Who Served: Where Albia Gets It Wrong

This weekend, hundreds of Albia, Iowa, citizens gathered in support of the "Welcome Home, Soldier" memorial, a publicly-funded park featuring 21 Latin crosses challenged by Americans United. This is the latest in a long line of publicly funded veteran's memorials to feature sectarian symbols, the First Amendment be damned.

Although these controversies provide a worn tune for our pied pipers of reaction, it would be unfair to pin their transparent chauvinism to every supporter. Many certainly wish to do well by those who serve and honor them as completely as possible. But as surely as those who serve set aside sect in solidarity with one another, so too must those who build memorials to them. Anything less is a dishonor.

For all their well-meaning, sectarian memorials fail to truly understand how deep the values of military service go. Those who defend these memorials nod to the idea of shared sacrifice yet avoid doing it themselves. No one in the U.S. military serves under or alongside the Latin cross; they serve under the flag and alongside one another. They should be memorialized in the same manner....
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/honoring-all-who-served-where-albia-gets-it-wrong