I would be nice if everyone followed the Ten Commandments, especially since, as WWL's Newell Normand noted, they're all laws -- but should Gov. Jeff Landry be focused on their appearance in schools?
"I went to Catholic school all my life, and I've spent the last three days asking other folks that I know that have got that went to Catholic school whether or not they can remember seeing the Ten Commandments in every classroom in their school. And I've not had a singular person tell me that they did," Normand said. "I didn't remember that. I knew they had it maybe in our religion class or otherwise. But there was not the Ten Commandments in every kindergarten, classroom or first grade classroom, a second grade. And I came up through the parochial school system."
Talking about principals helps kids develop a moral compass, but still, is the hanging of the Ten Commandments in every school in Louisiana going to make that big of a difference in society?
"I got a number of texts this morning talking about our priorities. And one of the issues that, has come up, obviously, is insurance. I think everybody would put that at the top of the list of priorities. And a lot of folks are writing in saying, 'Why are we spending as much time on the Ten Commandment issue as opposed to other issues that are hitting the pocketbooks of the citizens of the state of Louisiana, making it harder to make a living, making it harder to hold it together, making it harder to provide, for our families, our parents or otherwise?" Newell asked, adding:
"And, you know, it's really about priorities, especially when you have the insurance commissioner who's asking for a special session ... So it really comes down to this priority, you know, is what are we really going to go after first? Where are we going to spend our time? Where where are we going to utilize our assets and resources?"
What it comes down to, Newell said, is that issues like hanging the Ten Commandments is a political distraction.
Beyond that, there are implications about deciding to hang the Commandments in terms of how much it would cost and what other religions would get space, too.
"You know, you should also think about at what cost. How much disruption. How much friction? What do you do when the next request comes in? When someone wants to put up a list of Islamic prophecies. Do you say no? Can you say no? And then you have another request after that and a fourth and a fifth. And what you have before it's all said and done is 27 posters up on that wall of a school.
"I don't think you're going to have a right to say it's the Ten Commandments and no other. Then I think you are really on shaky ground. So we should always ask, what hard evidence do you have and at what cost is this going to be? I'm not so sure that we've done our due diligence there."
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