"It is always easier to pull somebody down than lift someone up."  -- Charles Spurgeon

Some years ago First Lady Nancy Reagan sponsored a program intended to stem the tidal wave of drug addiction in America. It was, as you may recall, a simple campaign with a red ribbon and slogan: "Just say no to drugs."

Well, it became the butt of jokes and the experts ridiculed it as simplistic and naive. The epidemic was much too complicated for such a simple solution. I beg to differ and offer for your consideration these basic rules for a happy healthy life that carry with them the same simplicity of Reagan's slogan.

Robert Fulghum was right when he said, "All I needed to know I learned in kindergarten."

1) An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

2) It is always easier to start something than stop something.

3) It is always more expensive and time consuming to repair a mistake than prevent a mistake.

4) Abstention is the fail-safe and absolute cure-all for sexual-related diseases, unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

5) Stop crime and the cost in time, money, poverty and damaged lives.

6) Stay out of dangerous places and circumstances

7) Cultivate good habits and avoid bad ones.

8) Don't ingest or consume poison.

9) Do not eat or drink to excess.

And, finally, when all else is forgotten, remember what your mother told you on the first day of school.

"Boy, listen to me.

Do not make me ashamed.

Behave yourself.

Pay attention where you are going.

Study the lessons of life.

Stay away from bad company."

The advice is as valid and timely as the day I first heard it.

I close my musing with a sign on a billboard in Miami, Fl. "What don't you understand about, Thou shalt not." Signed God