I was initially thrilled to see you ran photographs of my hand-painted saint medal designs in an article by Lindsay Nunez. The photograph by Grant Gutierrez was fantastic. The article? Not so much.How sad it is that a religion professor (Michael Pasquier), a doctorate student of historic costume (Ryan Aldridge), a doctorate student of apparel design (Jessica Pattison) and a psychology junior (Jessica Holmes) all applied negative spin on the concept of people wearing religious iconography as a form of fashion.Those who wear my designs do not wear them to “be publicly irreverent,” or as a “form of freedom of speech.” They do not wear them as “an affect of globalization.” I dispute that “many people complying with this trend don’t know the identity, story or meaning of the saint they are displaying around their necks.” At least Jessica Holmes was forthright when she said, “if you wear something religious it should be used only to display beliefs.” But she too, missed the boat.The reason Catholics, non-Catholics, Jews, Atheists, Agnostics and Buddhists wear my hand-painted medals is because they display a belief in hope; the medals are tokens of hope. How startling it is to see that supposedly educated folks don’t “get” the concept of hope.Robert Clemenz, Founderwww.SaintsforSinners.com——Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]