a short but terrible story

On I-40 between Nashville and Johnson City, there is a town called Monterey where I stopped recently. It's a town of less than three thousand, whose per capita income is about $12,000. So there's that.

Anyway, by the gas station is a hotel, and in the hotel parking lot is a little covered area with a bench. I assumed it was a historical marker, or even a memorial for someone who died on the highway. Oh no. It is a giant engraved rock with the 10 Commandments. This strikes me as a little weird, and I start to walk away. I came here to buy gas, not be preached to beside the dumpster of the Super 8.

But wait -- there's more.

Upon closer inspection,  discover there are two giant rocks, each with ten commandments. Sitting on the bench, all you can see is ten commandment rocks on either side. I just...

Why two, you ask? They're engraved in different fonts, but surely that doesn't justify it. Oh, now I see: one of them is wrong. Yes, wrong. The one on the left has the same phrase repeated for commandments two and three. Whoever was entrusted with engraving this rock (or, more likely, keying the words into a computer that would then do it with a laser) was clearly taking a brain holiday.

Of course, my favorite part is not just that it's wrong; it's that I don't think anyone noticed for awhile. This isn't like accidentally writing something down twice. No, this is literally carved in stone and then cemented into a parking lot in middle TN. And then, instead of fixing it or taking it out, the town's solution is just to put another one beside it. Problem solved.

I wanted to laugh, but then I saw the hotel was flying an unknown flag with a cross on it, which I could only assume to be the Klan's. It's not (it's the Methodists'), but I still left this town in a hurry. This is almost as good as the huge rebel flag on I-40 W... almost.