Specialty Car Plate For The Ten Commandments

Dayton, TN 37321
(423) 775-0774
March 17, 2004


Letter to the Editor
The Cumberland View

Dear Sir:

As one of the eighty-five of the ninety-five Tennessee counties who have taken official action that they have a Right to display the Ten Commandments, I am sending out an appeal by means of this letter to grant a special request of the people there. Because of the overwhelming response in our State by the people in favor of the Ten Commandments, I am asking that the people contact their legislators and the Governor to issue an order to the Department of Safety to grant a specialty plate for Tennessee for the Ten Commandments at a special rate.

Although there is provision already for specialty plates, the current program is not fitting for the Ten Commandments plate. I do not want to make money nor do we desire to set up an organization to benefit from the sale of the plates, nor do we want the Arts Commission to benefit by the sale of these plates. Under the present setup, a thousand people are required to get a new plate set up by depositing $35.00 with the State and which is distributed as follows: actual printing cost of $4.00; 12.40 to the Arts commission, $3.10 to the Highway fund, and $15.50 to the organization. The rest of the price paid to the respective County is for their local fees, wheel taxes, etc. which varies from county to country.

Thus we need special legislation or a Special Act from the Governor which would allow the Ten Commandments costs to be merely $7.10 plus local county costs since neither the Arts commission or any organization would be benefiting.

The work that I did in visiting 91 Tennessee counties was totally voluntary out of love for God and Country. It has proven that the good people of Tennessee majority still fear the God of the Bible and want to retain their God-given rights to post our documents, including the traditional copy of the Ten Commandments. I do not want to be a "patriot for profit." We who are represented by eighty-five Ten Commandment counties want to have our own license plate. I am asking the people there to phone or write for this change to the plate requirements. I appreciate the means by this letter to get this word out. After all, the God of Patrick Henry gave us this Right.

You may contact me for further questions at (423) 775-0774.

For God and Country,

June Griffin