TOWN LOOKS FOR SILVER LINING IN FISH RULING

Sometimes you don't even know who your friends are. Take the town of Republic, nestled in the Southwest Missouri hills just west of Springfield.

The good people of Republic recall when there was a city contest in 1990 to design a city seal. A city doesn't have to have a fancy seal, mind you, but down in Republic they thought they should have a nice one.

The winner of that contest, Marilyn Schexsnayder, said she included an ancient fish symbol to represent the religious aspect of community life in Republic -- not Christianity, mind you, but religion in general.

The plain fact is that most folks in the town, if asked, would say they are Christians. So, either way, the simple fish symbol consisting of two intersecting curved lines seemed like a good thing to have in the city seal.

There the matter rested until 18 months ago. That's when the American Civil Liberties Union let the city know that there were Republic residents who found the fish symbol offensive. Not only did it represent Christianity, the ACLU said, but city government had no business catering to religious symbols of any kind, Christian or otherwise.

At that point, the town of Republic's fish symbol was doomed. Just about everyone knew that the wall between government and religion has grown thicker and taller over the two centuries of our constitutional republic.

And, even though governments freely ask ministers, priests, rabbis and other clergy to say prayers at their meetings, even though the U.S. House had voted to allow the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools and even though federal and state agencies are -- finally -- recognizing the role churches can play in social services, petty things like a fish symbol don't stand a chance when the ACLU lawyers get involved.

Not that Republic didn't put up a fight. It did. And it got a boost in the form of free legal representation from the National Legal Foundation. But a U.S. district judge, Russell Clark, ruled the fish had to go. Judge Clark, you will remember, ran the Kansas City School District for all those years that Missourians spent billions of dollars to no avail.

So Republic, faced with a decision about whether or not to appeal Judge Clark's ruling, decided to save tax dollars and drop the fish. It's not as easy as you think to take a fish off your city seal. There are all those signs, and stationery, and envelopes, and special city pins, and ballpoint pens.

Guess what? This is how Republic found out it had so many boosters from all over the country. Stories about Republic's fish-symbol battle were widely reported. Turns out there were a lot of rooters for little old Republic. A lot of them said they would like to have some souvenirs. You know, anything with the fish symbol on it.

So Republic is getting ready to sell all the official stuff with the fish symbol. Officials hope to at least recover the $20,000 they figure the effort will cost.

Way to go, Republic. That's what you would have to call making lemonade out of lemons.