In case you’ve missed the story, there’s a monument in front of police headquarters here in Everett.
Has the Ten Commandments inscribed on it.
This has some people upset about the government endorsing a religion and they want it removed. Took it to court they did.
Anyway, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik heard the case in October. Being a wise man, he decided to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down an opinion on two similar cases before he issues his own.
Let the big dogs into the ring first is, I think, the legal theory.
With the delay, it looks like we’re going to have more time to discuss this, and that’s good.
For what it’s worth, I hope the monument stays.
Not because I believe that we Christians have a lock on the path to heaven. Come judgment day, I’m betting a lot of us Christians are going to be standing in front of a toe-tapping, arms-folded, stern-visaged deity, and we’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Take a run through the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins and see where you come up short. You get to explain yours. I get to explain mine. I guarantee the fun meter’s not going to be pegged for any of us that day.
And, if we look around, I’ll bet we see others in line representing every other religion on Earth waiting for their chance at salvation. The Lord I know speaks many languages and answers to a lot of different names.
I don’t believe that the presence of such monuments violates any constitutional principle, either.
Such monuments have been around for quite a while now and, last time I checked, we still don’t have a state-sponsored religion. If these monuments were meant to help establish a religion, you’ve got to think that they’re not working very well or, maybe, that that wasn’t ever their purpose.
Still, they worry some people.
That’s why I like Robert Hayman’s suggestion in a letter to the editor a while back.
His basic idea: Put up more.
More directly, he thought we might “erect several additional monuments (or plaques) that reflect the great breadth of our heritage and the vast diversity of cultures and religious beliefs that have contributed to the entity called America.”
This sentiment was echoed even more recently by Tristan Erickson, who also argued for “not only allowing the monument to stay, but adding to it!”
Count me in, but for a different reason.
Pieces of marble like this monument don’t make me think of a particular religion. If anything, they make me think of behavior – often poor on my part. They remind me of the basis of many of our laws. They nag me to do better and, like many others in this race, I sorely need to be nagged.
By and large, we humans are a decent lot. We work hard, raise kids, protect our families, contribute to charities, stay out of trouble and pitch in to help others whenever we can. But with all of that, the best of us still manage to wander onto the soft shoulders of the straight and narrow more often than we should.
As for those a few rungs farther down the ethics ladder, check the news on any given day and you can see where, as a society, we need all the help we can get.
Honoring Mom and Dad is taking a beating. Language that would make a sailor blush is everywhere. Morality is being chipped away by an entertainment industry that seems determined to find the lowest level of behavior and start digging from there.
Murder’s all too common and one notes that we’re pretty good at coming up with any number of new ways to steal, swindle and cheat.
Most advertising is aimed at getting us to covet (especially if our neighbor has one) this, that or the other – even though we seldom need whatever it is that’s being pushed onto us.
Lying’s still a staple of life and, if anyone wonders where it can sometimes lead, just remember that Martha Stewart is now redecorating the big house for playing fast and loose with the truth.
So, I stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Hayman and Mr. Erickson in suggesting we keep the monument and even put others out there, too.
Because maybe, just maybe, that slab (or several slabs) of granite could help remind us of just how we should all behave.
And, on that basis alone, hell, let’s put them in lights.
Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Comments can be sent to larrysim@att.net.
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