‘Say you’re sorry’

It’s been nearly three decades since Robert Fulghum introduced us to life lessons learned in kindergarten.

For years after the 1986 release of his best seller “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” the poster sharing Fulghum’s carefully crafted credo was ubiquitous.

At first glance, it seems too simple to say all we really need to know we learned in kindergarten. But mostly Fulghum’s book and credo are a longer version of that even simpler ethic we’ve been taught from birth: do to others as you would have done to you.

Whether it’s Fulghum’s rules for right living or the Sunday School standard we know as the Golden Rule these lessons should have long ago become part of our basic make-up as adults. Where we may disagree on the broader points of religion, this moral standard cuts across all denominations and serves equally well in the secular sphere.

Although all of us sometimes fall short of this standard, we must never stop aiming to be out best selves. As a meaningful benchmark for good living, we think the Golden Rule is above reproach.

But there are some gems in Fulghum’s credo worth reviewing.

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School,” Fulghum says.

“These are the things I learned:

“Share everything.

“Play fair.

“Don’t hit people.

“Put things back where you found them.

“Clean up your own mess.

“Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

“Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. …”

We see a need for a reminder of the basic tenets of good living in the behavior of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly. After kindergarten and Sunday School no one should really need reminding of their responsibility to take their manners everywhere. But when our elected public servants do the public’s business with curse words, scorn and disrespect for those who invest their time participating in local government it seems like a reminder of the Golden Rule and Fulghum’s Credo is in order.

Thank you to Assemblyman Warren Keogh who issued a public apology on behalf of his peers around the table at the last assembly meeting — and which we reprinted on the Opinion page Sunday, March 10 — who have taken to belittling and cursing at speakers who come to address their elected representatives.

What’s especially disappointing here is the worst offenders on the assembly — play the podcasts of the assembly meetings for yourself at radiofreepalmer.org — also are well-known members of the Valley’s faith community.

Across all of life, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the words “I’m sorry.” Based on its conduct toward the public, we think the rest of the assembly’s members should follow Keogh’s lead, apologize and change their ways.

It’s long past time for each of our assemblymen to recommit himself to the Golden Rule and standards of basic decency.