RIVERSIDE: Save the Mt. Rubidoux cross T-shirts booming
27/11/2012
Stan Skrocki, the 62-year-Orthodox Christian and good businessman, is selling Save the Mt. Rubidoux cross T-shirts. He owns an independent franchise in Riverside at 7001 Indiana Ave., Suite 2, that promotes brands and slogans via embroidery, screen printing and customized gifts and products.
Since the flap erupted over the fate of this fixture atop Mount Rubidoux, a public park in Riverside, Skrocki has sold 50 shirts at $10 apiece, with $1 of each purchase kicked back to help save the embattled cross. The 35-foot concrete and steel icon is in the crosshairs of a First Amendment lawsuit.
The Riverside City Council voted on Nov. 13 at a packed meeting to postpone until January any action on the Mount Rubidoux cross.
The revered symbol has been perched atop a site beloved by the Riverside community since 1907. A group advocating separation of church and state advised the city that it would sue if it doesn’t remove the cross. The council had been toying with the idea of selling the cross and the land under it — a 0.43-acre parcel — to avoid a lawsuit threatened by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The group wrote the city in August to say unless the cross is removed, it would sue under the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which courts have interpreted as banning most religious displays on public land.
The mountain has been a public park since 1955, when Mission Inn owner Frank Miller’s family donated the land to the city. A condition in the deed requiring the city to maintain the cross expired in 1985.
City officials proposed the sale of the cross and the property beneath it because they believe the case law is against them, and selling a piece of land to a private owner has resolved some situations. Residents have made other suggestions on how to protect what many see as a community treasure. Old Riverside Foundation President David Leonard wrote that the history of the cross and Easter service make it eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Skrocki jumped into the fray following the lead of his pastor at St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, Father Josiah Trenham. The pastor told the council he would chain himself to the cross if necessary to prevent its removal.
Read more about Skrocki, the man behind the t-shirts, in a story that will appear on Tues. Nov. 27, 2012 in The Press-Enterprise business section.
Visit EmbroidMe for information on this business:http://www.embroidme-riverside.com/
