Dear George,

I've been thinking about the movement afoot in Richmond to post the ten commandments in all of Virginia's public schools. At first I thought it was a totally loony idea ... until I took the trouble to look up the actual commandments in three translations of the Bible (Exodus 20:1-17). Then I began to think about what our Commonwealth would be like when the schoolchildren who had to contemplate the commandments every day grew up and took the reins of power.

Not only would there be no adultery, thus presumably reducing the divorce rate, but there would be NO GRAVEN IMAGES! We could finally get rid of all those pesky statues of Lee and Jackson, which serve as daily remainders to many Virginians of their ancestors' enslavement. What a boost for abstract art, since any likeness of any thing in the heavens above or the earth below is prohibited. And we would all have one day a week to read books, play with our children, take long walks, etc, since every single business would shut down on Saturday.

Of course, the children might well be confused if excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are also included. Indeed, my own daughter was confused back in second grade at St.Anne's-Belfield, when a group of lawyers came to the school and gave a presentation. Emma told me that afternoon that they had had an assembly about the ten commandments. I said, "Really? Tell me about it." She said that the presenters had had a big dial with ten numbers on it and they selected a child from the audience to spin the dial; then they would explain that commandment. Of course, at this point I wondered how the lawyers would explain adultery to a group of first-through-sixth-graders, so I asked her which commandments she had learned about. She said, "We learned about the one that says soldiers can't budge into your house and stay overnight without your permission." Ah, yes ...Thou shalt not quarter troops. The lawyers were celebrating the 200th anniversary of the bill of rights, which I guess can be thought of as the ten commandments of a free society.

Liz Kutchai (electronic mail, February 14, 2002)