Kelo the Commandments

The Ten Commandments are in the news again. It is not so hard to understand the reasons why. Since movies tickets sales have plummeted, there is also a need for a remaking of the movie, The Ten Commandments.

Years ago a juvenile court judge observed that those who appeared in his courtroom more than once did not know the Ten Commandment. This was before Charleston Heston appeared as Moses in the Biblical Epic that was a smashing success at the box office. The judge soon remedied the situation and reduced the rate of juvenile recidivism in his courtroom. The judge told his fraternity brothers in the Fraternal Order of Eagles and soon there were hugh monuments containing the Ten Commandments throughout the land.

Some politicians in Kentucky recognized the judges were also in need of learning the Ten Commandments. So they posted the Ten Commandments in courthouses and courtrooms throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. These politicians also took credit for educating our judges. As Stephen Carlson noted in his blog, http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2005/06/supreme-court-ten-commandments-and.html, citing the Sermon on the Mount, this was wrong.

Now word comes from the High Court in an nuanced but not confusing opinion that it is okay for the government to take land from poor people and give it to rich condo developers. I can think of five places in need of condo developments. The reaction was quick. A jury in Alabama cleared a former CEO of charges of accounting fraud totaling $2.7 billion.

Now we all know that stealing is wrong. It says so in the Ten Commandments. Since posting in Commonwealth[1] courthouses is unconstitutional, I am urging my fellow Americans to demand that Hollywood remake the classic so that we can reduce recidivism among our judges.

Update

Susette Kelo, whose riverfront house in New London's Fort Trumbull neighborhood is set to be razed, said she's glad politicians in Washington are working against the decision. "I think the people in this country are outraged in this decision, and rightly so," she said. "Everyone in this country has just lost the right to own their own property."

[1] Not all states are commonwealths.

copyrighted 2005