From the Detroit News:
FRANKENMUTH -- If this popular tourist mecca 80 miles north of Detroit wears Germany on one of its sleeves, the other contains Martin Luther.
Founded by Lutheran missionaries who vowed to retain their old ways, the community of 4,800 has one of the highest concentrations of Lutherans in the Midwest. The city seal contains a Luther rose, the symbol for Lutheranism.
So when local atheist Lloyd Clarke wanted to remove a cross from the seal, along with ones in a city park and on a state bridge, residents rose nearly as one against him.
Children taunted the 66-year-old Clarke. A letter writer accused him of trying to reduce Frankenmuth to "Satan's pit." Another said crosses were as much a part of the town as its renowned chicken dinners.
"People who like to cite the Constitution to justify their hatred and bigotry should take the time to read it," resident Judi King wrote to the local paper.
I think most people have been to Frankenmuth at some point. For those that haven't, I'll just say that the culture there is as German as South Boston is Irish. It's fairly obvious from the name of the town which was settled by Lutheran missionaries from Franconia. It is still largely German to this day. It's also most well known for Bronner's Christmas store that draws customers from all over the country. It's still a heavily religious and conservative area. It markets that. It markets its culture. You see it in the stores, building, street names, and last names of the people there. I can't explain this in a website. You have to see it to understand it. It's a great town to visit, and I don't have to be German or Lutheran to appreciate it.
Clarke said he moved from Bay City to be closer to family in Frankenmuth and a neighboring town.
He didn't notice the foot-long crosses on the bridge until he drove past them a few months ago, he said. He felt they made Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians feel unwelcome.
I've never seen a religious symbol on a bridge in all my life," he said.
Clarke has a long history of activism. A retired UAW organizer, he has belonged to anti-war groups and ran for the state Senate in 2006 as a Green Party candidate, receiving 2.5 percent of the vote.
After he objected to the bridge crosses, the city promptly removed them.
Boy, that was easy, Clarke thought. He then tried his luck with removing the cross from the city seal.
But the city balked, the churches got involved, the residents turned on Clarke, and Frankenmuth hasn't been the same since.
U.S. courts have given conflicting rulings about religious symbols on public property. But judges seem to support such emblems if they represent the history of a community, said legal scholars.
So you feel unwelcome after pushing the city around. Tough crap. Go home. Go back to Bay City, Clarke. You have only been in Frankenmuth for four years. You have not EARNED the right to push this crap around. You may have the power, but not the right. There's a German word that describe people like you who move into a town and force your views upon it. The word is Arschloch. Flatlander is another good term for people like that as well, but that's more applicable to areas like New Hampshire and Vermont which has problems with invaders of their own.
Ann Arbor is not my type of town. It's a leftist paradise with heavy regulations on its citizens. If I move there, I wouldn't push for the courts and others to change the things there, especially the core things there. It's there city, not mine. If I moved there, I'd know what to expect, and accept that it is how things are done. If I didn't accept it, US-23 is right there. I respect that.
If this was a case opression or force by government or things like that, that is one thing. This isn't it. This is just Johnny come lately imposing his one man culture war on the established community and its culture. I can't stand people like that, whether from the left (California natives are notorious for that - which came the term Californicators) or even when it is from people on the right. Be good or be gone. That doesn't mean you have to agree with all the views of the community, but respect the community to which you move. Don't bring your crap here, leave it at your old place.
