An atypically fond recollection of Madelyn Murray O’Hair:
Someone who was very important to me is Madalyn Murray O’Hair. She started the American atheist movement and at one point she was the most hated woman in America, because her goal — which she achieved — was to get rid of prayer in schools. She believed in the separation of church and state, and in the First Amendment. She really fought, and she used her son as one of the plaintiffs in a suit against the Baltimore City Public School System. In the ’60s, there was so much prayer and religious indoctrination in schools, which she thought was ludicrous, and so do I. It’s like, Excuse me, which God? Whose God? Do you mean grandpa, in a white robe with a beard who murdered his own son, put him on a cross? [emphasis in original]
There aren’t many people out there with kind things to say about O’Hair, but everyone who appreciates the First Amendment ought to be a fan. I seriously need to get busy on that biography project.