After seven area firefighters were killed in September 11, 2001, neighbors in Red Hook, Brooklyn, petitioned Community Board 6 and the City Council to rename a block of Richards Street to “Seven in Heaven Way.” Now the anti-religious group NYC Atheists is preparing a lawsuit against the city to remove the sign, claiming they can “show injury — and the impact of what the city is doing” in a First Amendment case, which would argue that the sign violates the separation of church and state. (Because when people say a 9/11 first responder is “in heaven” they are specifically referring to the walled-in sky compound guarded by St. Peter. Not, as you might have guessed, a generic non-religious wish that a person who died running into a towering inferno to rescue hundreds of innocent people might somehow now be at peace.) Anyway, the city is sticking to its guns and lawyers questioned by the Brooklyn Paper seem to think such a case won’t have merit. “There was a public process,” CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman told the Daily News. “They had ample opportunity to make their feelings known.”
Heaven help them! Atheists plan suit over city’s ‘Seven in Heaven’ street sign [Brooklyn Paper via NYDN]
