Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, March 8, 2004.

In keeping with our Lenten theme, let me just remind you that you are all sinners. Yes, sinners you wretched mass of foul and odious rabble! You nasty lot of filthy stinking refuse! You contemptible crew of wicked rascality! You-- ...oh, wait... I'm a sinner, too. Well, that certainly brings your standing up a notch or two, doesn't it?...

Indeed, here in Michigan we are not waiting for the first game of Spring to cast the first stone. No, casting first seems to be a sport in and of itself. And so there have been recent efforts to boost the so-called sin taxes on the vermin who consume cigarettes and liquor. They are sinners after all, and it's the government's duty to teach them a lesson and save their souls, right? Umm...

Now I don't have a problem with cigarettes and liquor being taxed. Our shared-services monster gets hungry (schools, streets, protection, etc.) and somebody has got to feed it. Tobacco products and distilled liquids seem to be fair game. But what I think is dangerous is presenting and selling the tax code in a morality wrapper.

Because pretty soon it becomes more and more acceptable for government to legislate morality under the guise of collecting revenue. Fast-food tax? Serves the gluttons right! A $300 fine for not having proof of insurance in your car? Serves the slothful right! An ongoing fee that cartoonists must pay for breathing oxygen? Absolutely! Why, their sins-of-the-mind alone merit it!

Anyway, the point is that we're all in this together. And everybody copping to having a tendency to screw up in their own way seems to be a good place to start. From that point, we can get along with the business of trying to be better people and sharing our resources.

So let me be the first to step up and say, "I'm a sinner, and I'm no better than anybody else." (Except, of course, for Martha Stewart -- apparently it's perfectly acceptable to pick on her....)