Do Unto Politicians As You Would . . .

This HB477 thing is a tremendous opportunity to take the old axiom, "Do unto politicians as you would have them do unto you," and apply it. It is an opportunity to do good unto the politician. (No, do not add, ". . . and them that spitefully use you" to that sentence, for I truly believe the politician does not try to do us harm.)

Hey, take it the way the axiom was originally written, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," does it make room for exceptions? Does it leave the politician out? It doesn't. So, if were you in this boat, how would you want to be treated? Would you like your text messages to be open game for the public? Would you like to have to dig up all your old messages months later and send them to someone who wanted to sift through them all in search of something to use against you?

Actually, I might agree to having all my appeals for government change to be splashed out before the public. And, though I don't like the idea of someone going on what has been called a "fishing expedition" against me, I think I can say, "Have at."

I would not at all, though, like to have to keep all I have texted, and all I have emailed, and have to dig it all up. Too much work. With all the record keeping the government requires of us, this is the time to turn the other cheek and say we won't require it of them.

But -- now listen to this -- if we were using some form of social media, and not erasing our messages, they would remain there and I wouldn't have to dig through them and make them available. They would be sitting there free and available. I won't say, free and easy for the picking, because the person who wanted them would have to be the person making the effort to dig them out. But I will say this, when that person misquoted me, it could be made easy for the public to look up the full and correct quote.

So, having ran the HB477 question through the "do unto others" test, I still say, "Keep those records open."