Boise, Idaho, my hometown, is surrounded by foothills filled with dry sage and running trails.  I used to love (and still do when I visit) running and biking in those hills. 

On one of the tallest hills, Table Rock, there is a big cross that lights up at night.  You can see it from most places in town.  We watched Fourth of July fireworks from that hill sometimes.  I biked up the long trail to the top and leaned against the cross base, exhausted at the end of the climb.  You could see the whole Treasure Valley from there, and the Owyhee Mountains to the west.

There was a big "B" for Boise set nearby.  At Homecoming, sometimes we would roll out white newsprint to the right and make a "K" to honor my high school, Bishop Kelly.  Borah High School would paint it green and Boise High School would paint it red.  Nobody thought too much about it.  The cross was there nearby.

The cross was put up more than 50 years ago by the Jaycees, a service organization.  I grew up with it, but as I got older I wondered how it got around First Amendment challenges.  It turns out a member of the Jaycees bought the small patch of property around the cross in 1972, after an Oregon Supreme Court case held that a similar cross on public property in Eugene, Oregon, violated the First Amendment. 

Now the Jaycees are trying to raise money to put in LED lights at the cross to cut power bills and reduce maintenance.  The changes will make the cross even brighter, according to a Jaycees member.  "It's a beacon of peace and hope to the majority of Idahoans," he said.

Yes, probably to a vast majority of Idahoans.  That's when things get difficult.  The cross has already survived a constitutional challenge because of the private ownership, which was arranged with the state.  I'm a Christian and have never minded it too much.  But then the problems start to accumulate.  What if another religion bought a piece of Foothills property (apparently going for a song now) and put up a big fluorescent symbol?  What if somebody in town put up a big cross in their front yard?  You might expect all the litigation that happens whenever somebody puts up the Ten Commandments or a creche.  

Or maybe not.  Some in Boise might be offended by that cross, and I can understand why.  But maybe it's just not that big a deal.  Some may come from a place where they were segregated or arrested because of their religion, so they are just glad to not be treated differently and can live with it.  For most others, maybe that cross really is "a beacon of peace and hope."

Still, I'm glad they can challenge it if they want to.  It's hard to imagine we would ever become the Taliban, but it's good to be very careful not to be.