European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday saturday december 25/26, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 courts of two minds on religious displays a tis the season to be to be what in one area of the Law a tis the season to be quarrelsome. The recurring question has to do with religious displays on Public property. What is permissible what is impermissible the answer is it All depends. Two widely separated cases decided at the Federal appellate level last month illustrate the perplexing problem. Both cases involve applications by an organization of hasidic jews to erect a menorah. In grand rapids mich., the court said yes. In Atlanta the court said no. Taking them one at a time Calder Plaza is a 4.5-acre Park in the heart of grand rapids. All parties agree that the Park is a traditional Public forum made available to a wide variety of secular and religious programs. In 1984, chabad House obtained permission to erect a 20-foot steel menorah the jewish candelabrum at a Point in Calder Plaza 256 feet from City Hall 162 feet from the nearest government building. Chabad pays All costs of fabricating erecting maintaining and storing the menorah. The City supplies the electricity to Light the candelabrum at night but collects a $2.50 fee to offset the expense. After the eight Days of hanukkah the menorah is removed James j. Kilpatrick two signs each 2 by 3 feet accompany the display. The signs read a Happy hanukkah to All. This menorah display has been erected by chabad House a private organization. Its presence does not constitute an endorsement by the City of grand rapids of the organization or the  no one objected until 1990, when americans United for separation of Church and state sought an injunction to forbid the display. The Case wound its Way up and Down the Federal courts. It ended on nov. 16, when the full . Court of appeals for the 6th circuit voted 9-6 to approve chabad a request. I believe the Case was rightly decided. Under the developing or disintegrating Case Law governments must allow religious groups to make use of Public property on the same conditions accorded to everyone else. A special requirement is that a sectarian display such As a creche or a menorah must be so situated that no a reasonable observer would infer government endorsement. The 6th circuit majority Felt that the grand rapids menorah met that requirement. Under the circumstances no reasonable observer would infer that the City government was endorsing hasidic Judaism. The six dissenters speaking through senior chief judge Pierce Lively Felt strongly the other Way. They emphasized that except for a daily Candle lighting ceremony the menorah would stand unaccompanied 23 hours of every Day for eight Days. They regarded the disclaiming sign As insufficient. A reasonable observer in their View would suppose the menorah to be a permanent piece of sculpture erected by the City. The circumstances in the Atlanta Case were significantly different. Here Cha bad Zubavitch of Georgia proposed to erect a 15-foot menorah in the Rotunda of the state Capitol and to keep it there for the eight Days of hanukkah. An accompanying sign would say a Happy hanukkah from chabad of Georgia a but nothing was said about a specific disclaimer. . District judge Orinda d. Evans found the proposal unconstitutional. The Capitol a Rotunda is Only a limited Public forum not an open forum. A reasonable observer might Well infer that the state was advancing the cause of religion. The 11th circuit affirmed her decision but circuit judge Phyllis a. Kravitch filed a dissent that struck me As sound. She made the Point that government May absolutely ban religious expression Only if no other action will suffice to dispel an inference of governmental endorsement. Perhaps a disclaiming sign would be other cities. I done to see it As a close ques enough. She thought it an a extremely Tion at All. Whether its a creche or a me close  Norah these Brief seasonal displays Are in recent months it has been an sex no threat to the separation of Church and Tremley close question in Cincinnati Bur Stalc Lington vt., and Ottawa 111., among c Universal press Syndicate there s no Freedom for women without safety a this is what i am getting my daughter for Christmas a says my Friend placing a newspaper and on the table that we share for our annual Holiday lunch. The and contains no Teddy bears or santas. Her daughter like mine is grown. Rather it shows a Young woman next to a broken car in an isolated area. The Model with an anxious look on her face is urgently saying into a car phone a please hurry its getting dark a my friends gift idea is of course the phone. She wants to give her Twenty something daughter a the same child who once longed for a cabbage Patch doll and then yearned for a pair of Silver earrings a a Bauble of added Security. I understand this Choice although my friends taste usually runs More to Funky hats than to hardware. Car phones themselves once sold As a Basic for work Are now featured As a dress for Security accessory. They Are sold for Protection. But this afternoon As i pass the and Back it occurs to me that her worries about safety Are not seasonal. Nor Are they restricted to the car and its occupants. Indeed i share them. I Tell my Friend about a conversation i had with my own daughter. She the wanderer had just called to describe in detail her new apartment. I the worrier had asked for the most important detail a is it Safe a she had talked about cabinets in the Kitchen and curtains on the windows. I had asked about alarms on the door and rates on the windows. Ellen Goodman the two of us Mother and daughter stopped and calculated the hidden a safety tax on her last two apartments. Hadnot the difference Between pretty Safe and not so Safe places been about $100 a month Wasny to this a sort of gender tax now my Friend and i go on. We tabulate the everyday costs of being female and sometimes afraid. Do we count the extra lock on one friends door self defense lessons for another cajun Pepper Mace for a third do we include the times we took taxis instead of streetcars what is the Price list for other women How Many jobs Are passed up because they Are in places or at hours considered unsafe How Many places do women not go to a movies dinners friends a on How Many nights out of How much anxiety and How do we calculate this Cost of safety the world is not always Safe for men either. We know that males who Are Young and Black Are at the greatest risk of criminal harm. But we also know that feeling unsafe a at Home at work on the streets a pervades women a lives More pervasively. Last fall when two groups a the is. Foundation and the Center for policy alternatives a surveyed women across race and class and age they found that worries about personal Security were second Only to worries about economic Security. Indeed the two worries were often connected. In Public activists and policy makers still tend to Divide such concerns into their parts rape sexual harassment battering crime. But add them together and give them one proper name a personal safety a and a Quarter of All women will admit that this is their top concern. Some poor hispanic women in particular worry More about safety than even about paying their rent. This is one women a Issue that can Cut across All lines because it cuts across All lives. It can link together a woman with the cellular phone on her Christmas list and the woman who cannot leave her housing project apartment after dusk. They share the gender tax and often the fear. My Friend and i finish our pre Christmas lunch in a not so festive mood. We Are women who feel confident at work but tense in an empty City parking lot. We know others who have broken the Glass ceiling but feel afraid a and sometimes ashamed of feeling afraid a of footsteps in the dark. We have raised daughters to be Strong and yet daughters who must beware. Now we Are learning that women cannot feel free unless they feel Safe. Frying to communicate that message will take much More Power than a cellular phone. Ici the Boston