Editor’s Note: another dispatch from our friend, peripatetic conservative activist Jensen Young.

Greetings to all from the tire shop in Natchez, Mississippi. Despite an annoying tire light delaying my trip to south Louisiana for the week, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for. Our neighbor in Arkansas is sending my former boss now Ambassador Mike Huckabee to Israel after US Senate confirmation. My other former boss Speaker Mike Johnson seems to keep rounding up Republicans to get the required votes needed to keep the trains moving on reconciliation and hopefully lower the tax bill next year. I got some good resume targeting advice in Texas and a couple other things might percolate in NW Louisiana. The wonderful folks at Elm Grove Baptist in Bossier fed me lunch on Saturday and I had too many good dessert options. We’ve got some road construction going on the “Monterey Expressway” that connects Monterey to Deer Park (yes Deer Park is a community in rural Concordia Parish) which might have caused the tire light to come on.

I was blessed to snatch a last-minute ticket to the Pentecostals of Alexandria’s (POA as its commonly known in our parts) production of Messiah and then onto church services in Monterey on Sunday. As others whose roots & or business runs us through Central Louisiana knows can attest to, Messiah is a well-done production that goes through various scenes of Jesus life and ministry on earth. It’s worth going if you get the opportunity. The scenes where we are reminded “to go sin no more” & to “not deny Jesus” is something I need to do a better job of on a personal level. The 5pm service @ Monterey First Baptist reminded me that I’ve still got plenty to learn in the Bible.

Louisiana also still has work to do on these fronts on sinning no more and encouraging biblical basics. I saw the billboards while in suburban Dallas last week for Louisiana’s native Tim McGraw’s performance at an Oklahoma casino and no billboards trying to attract those dollars to come to Louisiana. We’ve tried gambling expansion and renovation but that isn’t what is going to work with competition in Vegas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and just about everywhere else. We can’t sue our way into prosperity because even if the lawyer that wins a big case against oil companies & tithes his 10% to the local church in Louisiana it won’t recover the loss that is real when the oil company moves even more of its operations out of state and won’t invest more $ here because the legal department is rightfully scared, they will be sued and possibly lose big. I’m not an expert at every bill coming through the Louisiana legislature this session but we’ve got to get the gumbo roux right in Baton Rouge this session to help Louisiana’s economy taste better than it currently does for both inside and outside investment.

On the biblical basics front I was encouraged in Monterey to see my friend’s quietly reading the Bible to the youngest child of the household Sunday evening. I was encouraged when I read Louisiana Family Forum’s blast email that some of the parishes were already getting the 10 Commandments up despite the lawsuit going on which is preventing it from going up in a few parishes. Personally, I need to do a better job of praying for AG Liz Murrill and her team of warriors defending common sense that the 10 commandments should be in every classroom like it is in the Supreme Court. This upcoming Easter week we can be grateful for Louisiana seafood boils and various gifts that might be brought to the children. Let’s not forget the fact that while Jesus paid the price for our sin all of us (including myself) need to do a better job of living out the Bible not only this Easter week but as we move on through life no matter where it takes us.