Quick question: What’s on the walls of your county courthouse?

We’re betting you don’t know, and neither do we. Whatever is posted there – the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance or the lyrics to the macarena – is probably not having much effect on the crime rate or the conduct of government business there.

We’re just wondering, on a practical level, why this matters so much.

Because somebody puts words on a wall or on a block of rock, does it change human behavior?

Does having a granite carving of the Ten Commandments on the property of the statehouse change what’s in people’s hearts?

Despite the nice Ten Commandments display outside its state capitol, Texas seems to have an endless supply of people on death row for murder.

We ask these questions only because our nation seems increasingly tied in knots over these sorts of symbolic issues. It’s as if the people involved are just itching for a fight.

If a judge in Alabama drags a 5-ton copy of his favorite religious text into the middle of the courthouse, he’s not just trying to dress the place up or bring enlightenment to passing criminals. He’s got a religious chip on his shoulder, and he’s daring somebody to knock it off.

By the way, that same judge is now stumping the state, apparently preparing to run for governor.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? To provoke. To get a rise out of the other side. To get into the news and onto TV. To put a match to a can of gasoline and stand piously aside as it explodes.

And if you think we’re tied in knots now, just wait. We shudder to think of the symbols that will be abused in the fight to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

We could be in for a long, hot summer.