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It can do the same for Christi McEntyre is a reporter with the Walker County messenger. She can cmcentyre@walkermessenger.com or (706) 638-1859. a social be reached ers, there is no one left who might understand. Who might listen and not judge. As much as any one person feels deeply in his or her heart that their own prayer and faith is right and comforting and good, there will always be someone else of a different religion or of no religion that feels just as deeply, upon hearing those prayers in a public setting, that it is wrong, personally, for him or her. Is that really so hard to accept? In a conservative area like Walker County, the ostracism endured by a non-Christian or non-religious student in cases like these is staggeringly reminiscent of that which a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) teen must experience when struggling with people who can’t accept his or her identity. How devastating that must feel, being constantly told that what your body and your heart know to be right is inherently wrong, and needs correcting. That you need to be “brought back into the fold” just for being who you are. Using the fear of an eternal punishment to discourage certain behaviors and beliefs is just plain manipulative. It smacks of the same persecution that this country’s founding fathers were trying to escape when they drafted the Constitution of the United States, ensuring that every person had the inalienable right to freedom of religion. And that includes freedom from religion. As an atheist, I personally don’t care what you believe. I’m not trying to convert anybody. I just don’t want the law broken, and I don’t want anyone to feel ostracized for his or her belief, or lack thereof. Students who want to pray before a football game are free to do so – privately, or in small, student-led groups. Not with their coach. Local city and county officials are free to pray for guidance before a meeting if they feel they need it, but not during the meeting itself. Not scheduled on the agenda. Maybe now other people will speak up. Maybe some teachers and government officials will search their own hearts and motivations and realize that they, in perhaps the best of intentions, have been less than equalizing and fair to their students and constituents. Diversity makes a biological community strong. one, if we let it. The French writer Alexis de Toqueville visited America in its infancy to report back to a monarchy-controlled Europe his impressions of the new, experimental democratic republic form of government. What struck him most was the potential for majority public opinion to become oppressive, a condition he called “tyranny of the majority.” “In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them... in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The master no longer says: “You shall think as I do or you shall die”; but he says: “You are free to think differently from me and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but you are henceforth a stranger among your people. You may retain your civil rights, but they will be useless to you, for you will never be chosen by your fellow citizens if you solicit their votes; and they will affect to scorn you if you ask for their esteem. You will remain among men, but you will be deprived of the rights of mankind. Your fellow creatures will shun you like an impure being; and even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they should be shunned in their turn.” Sad to see that the old Frenchman was right. at