Wiping off the dust, as Commissioner Vernon Bryant suggested Monday, may give enlightenment on the dreaded issue ofschool merger in the county.

What we are trying to figure out is why, like the atheist and the Bible, wouldn't the commissioners want to open this $100,000 report — the official title Operational Improvements in Halifax County Districts — in an open session and go over its findings, findings that have been critically analyzed to address issues pertaining to all three school districts within Halifax County.

The atheist may open that Bible and find redemption or reading its pages he may find further arguments to fuel his beliefs.

That a $100,000 study has been lying around collecting dust since October presents a problem to us and obviously it concerned Bryant enough Monday that he feels this expensive Bible could serve as a guide to help he and his fellow commissioners navigate a tempestuous sea of false preaching and heresy that has been building like the storm clouds before the Great Flood.

This $100,000 Bible is not a book written by false prophets, it is a 300-plus page, hardline analytical report that delves into numerous issues regarding the state of our school systems. It is not a study about merger alone and that should satisfy the devout faithful who care about the overall salvation of the school systems and the zealots and street corner preachers who are either proselytizing to merge the schools or ripping their garments to stop merger at all costs.

We have read the apocrypha, the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights study, which says merger is a must without diving into its financial implications.

Now we must have a Bible study, if you will, of the Evergreen Solutions report that for one reason or another both sides, Bryant excluded, don't want to touch because it may show the house was built on sand instead of rock. It might show that the best solution is an ecumenical movement that brings the best of all merger doctrine together without a move to a single church to accomplish this.

We support Bryant in his effort to have the commissioners open this report and study it before a public who is concerned about the salvation of their school systems. Then we encourage a revival in which all the school systems and the commissioners gather to break bread and discuss this document even further.

While the end results may not change one's faith like the atheist who doesn't open the dusty Bible, within its pages could be a bittersweet conversion story. The problem is we'll never know until we wipe off the dust and delve into the $100,000 Bible — Editor