I understand that the portrait shouldn't legally have been there in the first place, but does anyone else ever feel a twinge of sympathy for the people who resisted having it taken down? Their position may be illegal, but that doesn't make having to enforce the law a victory in my eyes.

I want to clarify: I am not religious, but my grandfather was catholic and everyday I wear the crucifix he owned. The imagery is religious and people assume I believe, but it's just a trinket. What gives it value is the relationship it represents to me. It's one of the few things I have left of him.

I know that a public school is not a place for religious imagery, and that there's a difference between a public building and my neck, but even this tiny experience with my grandfather and his crucifix has really changed how I view these sorts of cultural clashes. I wonder how I might feel if one day, after many years, I was informed that wearing my crucifix is breaking the law (I know this is absurd, but its the only example I can think of).

I am happy to see that the laws which maintain our secular society are being upheld, but there was time the law was not on our side. There are countries where atheists are made to fear the ire of their neighbors and the laws of their government. I think we would do well to remind ourselves of how demonized atheists and secularists were and still are and to remember that we should not make the same mistakes when enforcing laws against the public promotion of religion.

I hope we remember and anyone at these schools realizes that these laws do not exists to strip people of their faith. These laws are not written in order to oppress faith, but to promote coexistence. The portrait had to come down, but if everytime FFRF has to sue a school to uphold the law we react as if it's a victory in some on-going battle, we will continue to add fuel to the fire of the evangelical subculture that despises secular America.

There's no harm in taking a moment to reflect on the fact that for the good of the country, to maintain our "marketplace of ideas" a few small communities have to sacrifice a piece of their identities (in this case as small as a portrait in a school). And we may not see it that way, but there are always examples of local yokels who do in these stories. I just hope there are those who appreciate some of the personal, individual sacrifices that have to be made in order to help a community mature and become more welcoming to newcomers of differing faiths. And we should remember that when this has to be forced on a town by law in the 21st century, then its unfortunate instead of a "win".