Save the lawsuit money on religious displays
In response to your recent article titled "Should Mundelein allow religious holiday displays on public property?" I think the answer is pretty simple: you allow all of them or none of them, as Mundelein village attorney Charles Marino stated.
The SCOTUS has ruled that allowing one religious display on public property means that room must be made for all of them. Are the people of Mundelein comfortable with that? Will you still be comfortable if Muslims want a holiday display? There's a beautiful Hindu temple up on Rt. 137, so what if they wanted a statue of Ganesha included?
What do you say if the satanic Temple comes knocking (and they have a history of doing just that) asking for their own pentagram display? Or what if atheistic groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation ask to put up a Winter Solstice display like they do in Arlington Heights and Chicago every year? If you want the Christian nativity or Jewish menorah but not those others on public property, get ready for a costly and wasteful lawsuit.
I think the village board of Mundelein would be wise to just let this issue go, have no religious displays on public property and save the taxpayers' money for more important things, such as upgrading the village's outdated storm drainage system. Nothing is preventing anyone from making religious displays on private property.
Matthew Lowry
Mundelein