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Supreme Court to Decide on Mummy Makers Monument

November 12, 2008

The US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today from a religious group named Summum, which worships in a pyramid, practices mummification, and wants to erect a monument of its Seven Aphorisms in a public park.

This has caused considerable teeth-gnashing among those who see themselves as the gatekeepers of public monuments. One group has even declared that when the Court decides in Summum’s favor — as it inevitably will, given that it is packed with hippies — our parks will then have to take down all of our monuments, including all of our war memorials, rather than put up heresies like the Seven Aphorisms.

Really though, beyond the issue of clutter, we don’t see what’s the big deal.

America’s parks already provide homes to some odd monuments, and a few more would only give us more reasons to visit. The Supreme Court should just make it a condition that if any group wants to erect a monument, it must be a strikingly photogenic monument. Abstract concepts like the Seven Aphorisms will require much more than a rock with a plaque bolted to it. We’ve seen our share of those, and they only (barely) work when the thing being memorialized is fairly shocking.

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