A Shelton resident has filed a federal lawsuit against the city because Mayor Mark Lauretti didn’t let him put up a banner at a local park saying angels don’t exist.
The resident, Jerome Bloom, was a guest on “Valley Navel Gazing,” this publication’s weekly talk show.
Click the play button below to listen to the full interview.
Bloom said that for years the city has allowed the American Legion to put up a display of “heralding angels” at the park every December.
While noting that the display itself is “quite beautiful,” Bloom said it irks him because it’s an example of public space being used to endorse an explicitly religious message.
He said he brought his concerns to Mayor Mark Lauretti and the city’s Aldermen in 2014. Nothing happened.
So last year, when he saw the angels displayed in the park again, he reached out to the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group “committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church.”
“They were very interested in it,” Bloom said.
After alerting the group, he said he asked the city if he could put up his own “counter-display” in the park next to the Legion’s — a “Winter Solstice” banner.
The banner would have featured a quote from the Freedom from Religion founder Anne Gaylor saying: “At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
Merry Christmas it wasn’t.
“Needless to say, that would not sit well with heralding angels alongside it,” Bloom said.
In response to his request, Bloom said he received a phone message from Ronald Herrick, the Shelton director of parks and recreation.
The message said Mayor Mark Lauretti had denied Bloom permission to put up his display because it would be “offensive to many.”
By allowing the Legion’s angels, an“unambiguous symbol of Christianity,” Bloom said the city is obligated to allow his banner as well.
The Legion’s display “might make people feel warm and fuzzy inside, but they also have to be prepared for opposing views,” he said.
Boom said he knows his views may be unpopular.
“It may be small potatoes to many and it probably always will be, but to those who wish to exercise their freedom of speech, there can be few things as precious in this country.”
“The First Amendment allows, among other things, freedom of speech for everyone,” Bloom said. “What the town has done has opened its parks as a forum for active expression. And by allowing favorable speech and denying what they deem to be unfavorable speech, they are in effect censoring me.”
He said he filed a lawsuit in federal court March 22 because the city’s rejection of his banner gave him no other choice.
The lawsuit is posted below. It lists Bloom and the Freedom From Religion Foundation as plaintiffs, and the city, Lauretti, and Herrick as defendants.
Bloom said he’s hoping a judge will order the city to allow him to put his banner in the park this December.
Mayor Responds
The city has not yet filed a formal response to the lawsuit.
Lauretti told the Valley Indy April 4 that the city plans to contest Bloom’s claims.
The mayor said Bloom is entitled to his opinion, but the city shouldn’t be obligated to help him spread it.
Lauretti contrasted Bloom’s proposed banner with the Legion’s display in explaining his denial of Bloom’s request.
“It was all about his message,” Lauretti said. “He’s entitled to it, but it’s not what we typically do. Those things that the legion does are symbolic of holidays … Part of the culture of the world.”
He said by allowing such displays, the city isn’t saying others aren’t welcome.
“If somebody wanted to put up a menorah then they could, as an example,” the mayor said.
But he said the city is within its rights to deny displays like Bloom’s.
“This was a written message. It’s not something that we subscribe to,” he said. “We don’t endorse the message end of it.”
