PROVIDENCE, RI ― The owners of the Number One Finest Carwash placed a large cross across the street from their business, and it's causing a bit of a stir, according to a WPRO report.
The June 28 story quoted carwash Co-owner Peter Montequillo who said, "We adopted a spot 20 years ago across the street from our carwash. What we did is we maintain it, we put a sprinkler system in there, we cut the grass, we water it, we put flowers there so my son thought it would be a nice gesture because of Fourth of July coming up to put the monument up in respect to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military people. I gave him 100% go ahead."
The spot is owned by the city and now one athiest group is calling for its removal.
The city was sent a letter by Steven Ahlquist of the Humanists of Rhode Island and in it he called the cross a violation of the First Amendment. Adam Minor, a member of the Humanists group said in the story, “This gives the appearance that our government is favoring one religion over all others."
Montequillo said he has no plans to remove the cross and said if they don't like it, then they just shouldn't visit his carwash. "…I’ll be quite honest with you I don’t really want them for my customers, let them go to an atheist carwash or an atheist gas station, we want customers that feel the way we do," he said in the story.
