The author of the mural at Cranston High West at the center of the Ahlquist case speaks out:

I read the article Feb. 26 about a fundraising campaign among atheists to build a $40,000-plus scholarship fund for Jessica Alquist of Cranston, R.I. [news, "Athiest Who Fought School Prayer Banner To Get Scholarship"]

How nice of them. Jessica was duped by her ACLU-leaning father and uncle into bringing suit against the city of Cranston over the display of a school prayer that I wrote in 1960.

Dear Jessica isn't yet old enough to know the meaning of atheism. She was used (and permanently injured) by powers and ideologies in the name of secular liberal progressivism that she can't possibly understand at her tender age.

I can't believe The Courant would dignify such an award by such a group and to such a person with a piece on its pages. The R.I. judge's ruling in this case and the subsequent headlines fly in the face of all that is decent and moral about the United States and its Constitution.

Furthermore, I'd like to think that, as the author of the moral and upstanding school prayer in question, I'd be entitled to ten or a hundred times as much money as Jessica has been awarded for having torn it down and repudiated decency and morality in our schools. Where are my donors?