Today, my esteemed governor Jeff Landry decided to all but destroy the separation of church and state in Louisiana. That is no exaggeration; there’s little other ways that you can construe HB71 as anything but equating the importance of the Ten Commandments with the most core of foundational American documents, to be enforced in a governmental capacity:
…relative to public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools; to provide for the display of certain historical documents; to provide for the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Ten Commandments; to provide for displays in each classroom…
State Representative Dodie Horton introduced the bill, and 78 of her compatriots supported it so that it would be sent to, and today signed by Governor Landry. So now, barring a (likely spooling up as we speak) constitutional challenge, all the bright young children of the coming generations will get to be reminded of such tenets as “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” I’m certain our Buddhist adherents will appreciate being reminded by their classroom on the daily that they really shouldn’t believe in that false idol. Oh, and just in case that wasn’t apparent enough, commandment two: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.”
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” commandment número tres? That’ll apply well to polytheistic devotees. And I suppose we’ll all have to be sure to keep the Sabbath day holy, right? Wait, is this the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday, the Christian Sunday? Wait, there’s some sects that think it’s Saturday as well. Oh, shit—we forgot the atheists!
Maybe we have a sudden outbreak of parental neglect? Or we discovered that if a laminated piece of paper with a faded picture of Jesus will reduce our murder rate? I suppose Louisiana just isn’t godly enough, so our officials having infidelity problems is to be expected.
If this was a sincere, heartfelt attempt to bring order to the state with the only tools that State Representative Horton and company believed would work, I could respect that. Really, I could. I’d be just as livid, but you can have honest debate with firm principles. If the goal was a better populace, there are other ways to accomplish that that could be agreed upon.
I just can’t shake the feeling that this is an eye-catching, attention-grabbing gambit that’ll let the honorable congresspeople and Your Holiness Governor Jeff Landry accomplish some boring, mundane task that’s still far from being in the best interests of Louisiana’s people. But no matter what the motive is, this is craven manipulation of government to promote personal motives over societal good. To be frank, those who wish to sin will not be stopped by the aforementioned piece of laminated paper stuck to a corkboard that’s barely able to stay on the wall because the school can’t afford the nails to keep it in place. The question is if solving problems for the people is what State Representative Horton and her compatriots want to do, or if they just wish to inflict their will upon the state—and perhaps, if they hold ulterior motives, get a nice bonus to their portfolios for their efforts.
