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March 25, 2005
10 Commandments -- Texas Style!
Okay, I've neglected you guys HORRIBLY. Hardly been here at all .
So let's do something else, just to see who is still here.
Learned this on NPR, googled it to check it. Interesting bit of trivia.
Currently before the Supreme Court, there is a case involving monuments to the Ten Commandments on public lands, specifically around courthouses. One side argues for their removal based on the separation of Church and State (do we still DO that anymore?) and the other saying that, no -- it just honors part of our legal heritage and what's so wrong about God anyway, you pagan? One of the specifically cited sites is in Texas.
However, the ORIGIN of this particular monument is also of interest. Here's two clues:
1) it was unveiled around 1956.
2) the two men unveiling it were Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. What connects all of this?
If you guessed the movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS -- you're correct! Cecil B. DeMille got a group to put up the money for this and several other monuments just like it in a lot of different places as part of his PR campaign for his movie. That's why the tablets of stone on the monument are like the tablets used in the movie -- which most of America now believes was made by God and showed the real thing.
So what is being argued in front of the Supremes is (at least partly) -- the sanctity of Hollywood PR.
What a world, what a world.
-- John
Posted by John Ostrander at 10:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack