Fundamental Foundation
Dear Editor,
Proponents of Texas law Senate Bill 10, which requires public schools to post the Ten Commandments, assert its purpose is to “remind Texas students of the importance of the Ten Commandments as a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law.”
Although SB 10 identifies the Ten Commandments as foundational to American and Texas law, there is nothing in SB 10 to prevent educators from teaching students about other foundations of and current influences on American and Texas law. Educators may find these resources helpful in doing so:
The National Constitution Center offers resources and curriculum ideas (i.e., historical foundations through storytelling; constitutional interpretation skills; and civil dialogue and reflection) for educators of students enrolled in grades K-12 and college. The NCC, recognizing families “pass along values, stories, and a sense of responsibility to one another and to the next generation,” also offers family learning resources.
Learning for Justice provides resources and curriculum ideas for teaching and learning about current influences on American and state laws including education justice, resisting hate in education, and democracy for the 21st century.
Sincerely,
E. L. Morgan, Ph.D., CFLE
Greenwashed Gold Rush
Dear Editor,
Why build data centers? The answer is “Follow the money.” There’s lots of money to be made here. And the mega cash is flowing into the campaign accounts of politicians who are greasing the skids.
An Austin company is developing technology that will make data centers obsolete within five years. What are we going to do with hyper-data centers the size of Manhattan then?
And in the meantime, what have we forfeited? Clean water, clean air, and productive agricultural land, to mention just a few, as your recent article [“How Data Centers Are Eating Up Rural Texas,” News, May 1] by Sammie Seamon illuminates.
There’s a lot of development money at stake here. The AI industry is spending millions to greenwash their gold rush, and convince you that we need these mega centers. We do not need them to cure cancer, or to store cat photos. They are needed for Generative AI, which is mining your data and selling it. They know where you live, so to speak.
Do we want to burn up the one planet we have in order to create a superbeing that can live on Mars?
Let your elected officials know how bad these centers are. When people band together, we can be heard.
Sarah Jenkins
This article appears in May 22 • 2026.