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Teaching precepts is what is needed

Project yourself back to your school days.

Would having the Ten Commandments posted in a school hallway or classroom have made a difference in your life? It's unlikely.

Would you have remembered -- or if you're old enough, do you remember -- if the Ten Commandments had been posted in your school? Just as unlikely.

Window dressing. That's what this latest congressional action is.

A legislative amendment passed by the U.S. House to allow the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools is an attempt to make people think legislators are doing something, when they really don't know what else to do.

The value of the Ten Commandments is not in dispute. And placing them on the walls of schools would not be harmful.

But the youngsters who the legislators had in mind when passing this amendment need someone to TEACH them the Ten Commandments and their value. That is not the job of the schools. It belongs to the parents, other family members and the church or synagogue.

When things go wrong nowadays, Americans look to government to DO SOMETHING ... anything, even if it's ineffective.

We forget that government is the result, not the cause, of what makes this a great nation.

The United States has been the envy of the rest of the world because of ideas and ideals and people willing to pursue them. These same people developed the government to provide structure and order, not to run their lives.

If Americans have reached a point at which not enough people are revering and following the ideals and moral code that are needed to maintain our culture, that problem won't be solved by legislation or by having the Ten Commandments on the wall.

People in sufficient numbers need to realize that THEY must live a moral life, and must teach the youngsters to do the same.

Teaching those youngsters to follow the Ten Commandments would be a wonderful way to accomplish that.

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