We teach the basics. We build the foundation that the specific information we will need can be built from. We teach history so that we learn that learning from the mistakes others made is less painful than making those mistakes for ourselves. We teach civics and the rules of diplomacy so that we can discuss our problems and the things we disagree about without anger and hostility. The base of knowledge we teach must be formidable so that we can move forward with confidence, rather than the arrogance of ignorance that holds us back so effectively today.

It is of interest to note that my faith comforts me, and provides the confidence and discipline I need to move forward without the need to compel others to believe as I do or ridicule them when they do not. I would posit that while I see my faith as a tool, I have never found my faith to be a weaponized tool to be wielded against my surroundings, but rather a cushion that blunts the blows cast by living in a harsh and uncaring world. My faith reminds me that my battle is not to be better than those people around me, that it is enough to be better than I was yesterday, and to compare myself tomorrow not to my friends or my enemies, but to who I was today. I’m human so I sometimes do stupid shit. My faith asks of me to be as forgiving of myself when I do stupid shit as it asks of me to forgive others when they do human things too. I understand that all of the things I attribute to my faith are completely possible without the tool and crutch I call my faith, and use to codify and help me remember how I should be. I use mnemonics too, and any other tool I can access that helps get me through the day. The tools you use to get you by are not mine, nor should they be. All I ask is that you be a little gentler in your criticism of what are the worst aspects of the tool known as faith when misused by the unscrupulous, because in the hands and eyes of those of us with scruples, it blunts and heals the cruelty and hatred humans can unleash on each other.

Once you have established a bad thing as illegal, you have pretty much exhausted the law’s ability to deter that thing from happening. If that thing, now illegal, is still happening you need to move beyond the thinking that you need more laws making that thing even more illegal, and learn what is motivating people to do an illegal thing. Address that motivation and you will find that your one law is sufficient.