Friday, July 7, 2017
Fri, 07 Jul 2017
Edie Swann, Director of Public Affairs
After years of debate and controversy, a privately funded monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments was placed on the state Capitol grounds in Arkansas on June 27, 2017. Less than a day later, it was intentionally destroyed.
Travis Story, a 2008 Liberty Law graduate and general counsel of the American History & Heritage Foundation, has been at the forefront of the battle to raise money for the original monument and is now resolved to set up its replacement.
Upon hearing the news that the monument had been knocked down by a violent protestor’s vehicle, Story was interviewed by Fox News and remarked, “I guess God made a second set of stones for Moses, so we’re going to have to put up a second monument.”
Arkansas first approved the installation of this monument in 2015 after much pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union, Satanists, and other groups. Within 24 hours of its installation, the same man who was arrested for the destruction of a similar Oklahoma monument used his vehicle to crush the $26,000 granite statue.
The ACLU later condemned the illegal destruction of the monument and released a statement from Arkansas Executive Director Rita Sklar stating, “We strongly condemn any illegal act of destruction or vandalism,” However, the organization still intends to fight the replacement of the monument. Sklar said, “The ACLU remains committed to seeing this unconstitutional monument struck down by the courts and safely removed through legal means.”
Story has created a “GoFundMe” page to raise the money needed to replicate the monument and is determined to see it through. When asked by the Fox News reporter why the monument is so important, Story said, “As an attorney, I realize where our laws come from, and they come from the Ten Commandments…it is important to have a piece of the American heritage and history put on the state Capitol grounds…we’re going to be there to bring it back.”