The Democratic Platform

The weekend of April 11th thru April 13th was my first experience with a Democratic Convention and I learned a lot.  As delegates it was our job to arrive at a platform which will direct our energies until we meet again to reconsider it.  We had roughly 65 categories which were to be divided into six legislative action items and six principles for a total of 780 planks of up to 50 words each.  When you multiply that by an average length of 35 words the score is 27,300 words;  a lot of work.

This is the code by which we focus our legislative efforts and formulate our ever changing rules for living together as a society. We could simplify this complex code as follows:

1. Thou shalt not covet.  Think about it;  if you don't covet, you don't steal.  No matter what the object or the size of the object might be.  And you probably would not need the next principle either, but let's throw it in for safety's sake.

2. Thou shalt not kill.  Four words suffice here, we don't need 50.

3. Thou shalt not worship more than THIS ONE GOD. Does away with a lot of conflicting rules and gives the option of not worshiping at all.

However we can do still better than this.  How about, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.? (11 words.)  It's proactive and positive rather than negative.  The lawyers among you may want to add section A...B...C etc., paragraph 1...2...3 etc., subparagraph 1a...1b...1c...etc.  But let's just follow the rules and do away with the necessity for lawyers.  I consider myself an Agnostic, but these Christian principles are universal and necessary to a functioning society.  And (Surprise! Surprise!) they guide my life.