The value of specialty plates

In reference to the editorial “In Us We (should) Trust” (April 27): the Bloomington Herald-Times also ran details on the story on April 23 and 24 along with numerous reader comments e-mailed in to that newspaper.\nThe comments were as to be expected. The non-believers called the God-fearing ignorant, and the self-professed God-accepting church-goers called those who opposed the plates atheists & communists.\nSome in favor of the plates insisted that they are not “specialty plates,” as the IDS labeled them, and those opposed claimed that they are, and should be priced accordingly.\nA number of commentators made it a point to infer that of course the atheistic, communistic ACLU was just waiting, as usual, to attack Christianity by filing a law suit. In my opinion, the Indiana legislator who proposed the plate to the legislature was participating in a well-calculated Christian Right strategy to provoke complaints, expecting the ACLU would not let this slide. By entering the fray, the ACLU would stimulate the hyper-emotionalism of the religious right.\nWhy is that of value? Money! By getting those in the trenches angered they are sensitized and more susceptible to being suckered for cash as well as for votes.\nWitness the number of aforementioned readers who wrote that they were more than willing to cough up extra money for a “God” plate.