Editorial writers and TV pundits throw labels round like confetti at a wedding. Is someone liberal, progressive, conservative, right wing, moderate, socialist leaning, leftist, middle of the road, democratic or whatever...? The list goes on and on. The labels are used as a sort of shorthand to bracket people and to establish the particular political viewpoint of the writer or speaker. The tone with which the label is used can also indicate the speaker's attitude. The terms are meant to make discussion simpler but ironically more often than not they complicate and over-simplify issues particularly where there is complexity and nuance.

For example, like most people, I find myself having to test out where I stand on issues. Abortion is a good example. I am against abortion but as a male I see myself as not having the right to judge. I do not have a uterus. So I am for a woman's right to choose whether she brings a pregnancy to term. Just using abortion as a contraception tool nevertheless is offensive. So what label applies here? Am I on the left or the right? On this issue I believe it is far more important to educate both men and women on their sexual responsibilities from an early age so that each can discover his or her own sexual orientation without fear of prejudice or condemnation. Understanding, compassion, tolerance and education are the keys. The attitudes of the Epstein/Goldstein gang I find offensive because they objectify and demean women. Young men and women nevertheless need to be legally protected against the rapacity of older people who use their power to take advantage of their vulnerabilities. Does this make me a liberal or a conservative? Does assigning me such a label help? Likewise, I am for free enterprise but not the sort of free enterprise, which either through monopoly, or false advertising or intimidation takes advantage of the young, the poor, the sick, the old or the vulnerable or is at the expense of the environment. Does this make me a socialist?

I feel we would all be better off rejecting labeling people or attitudes and examining our own prejudices quietly and thoughtfully rather as we did propositions 105,106, and then voting according to what we see as advantageous and fair to society as a whole. This doesn't mean we have to be labeled Democrat or Republican. Let's stop using labels. In the words of Deng Xiaoping, who set the groundwork for the rise of modern China, "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." Don't we all just want to improve life for everyone? Much of the divisiveness we complain about nowadays seems to me to come from these labels we use. We would all get along better without them.