I met a friend, Shimon Cohen for coffee today and we were talking about labels. Not the kind you find in clothing, although those labels are irritating too.  We were talking about the labels we love to place on each other. This got me thinking about the similarity of the two.

Since announcing my candidacy for Secretary of State, as a Republican, I’ve seen the ugly side of labels.  For some, the fact that I am a Republican is like that scratchy tag in the back of a shirt. They won’t get past it. Other’s like it because it seems to tell them something about what’s inside. But I see something happening in the fashion industry and in our culture that gives me great hope.

Tags or labels don’t work anymore. We as consumers are sick of labels. We don’t want them in our shirts or in our politics. A tag, or label was designed to give you a bit of information about what you were buying. But the amount of information on that label isn’t enough to tell you the whole story of what it is that makes this product unique.

I see this, not just in politics. Look at religion. When someone walks up to someone who calls himself or herself a follower of Christ the first thing they want to know is “What church do you go to?”

Why? I mean seriously, why is that important? I think we believe we need to know that bit of information so we can apply the proper label to that person. Why?

We need to get with the times. The clothing industry has learned labels are irritating and has started printing the information on the cloth. I know people who won’t buy clothing if it’s got the irritating label.  I think the same thing needs to happen in religion and in politics. It doesn’t mean you can’t identify with a certain church, club or political party, but don’t let the label define what’s inside. If you do people won’t buy it anymore.