A Dirty Word

Again I will begin an exercise in what some would consider futility but I enjoy. It is to examine words and their meanings. For this submission I am really going to focus in on one word because it is quickly vanishing from the vocabularies of so many. I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting for me to divulge the word so here it is: responsibility.

It is such an intimidating and weighty word and the definition is no less intimidating.
1.the state or fact of being responsible. 2.an instance of being responsible: The responsibility for this mess is yours! 3.a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible: the responsibilities of authority. 4.a person or thing for which one is responsible: A child is a responsibility to its parents. 5.reliability or dependability, especially in meeting debts or payments.

You see I wasn’t kidding, this is serious stuff. So why has it become an endangered species among words in our society? My answer would be to you the same as why there are more divorces than ever….it’s hard and it takes work. I know I’ve harped on this in the past and I will continue to do so because this facet of our humanity is crumbling to the point that the buck never really stops anywhere anymore. No one person wants to shoulder the blame for anything these days. It’s why lawyers are doing so well even with the most frivolous of lawsuits. Everything and anything is now a potential lawsuit. That’s not to say that all lawsuits are wrong and in fact wrongful people get what’s coming to them almost every day. My point is we are losing our grip on common sense. If you buy coffee at McDonalds and you spill it in your lap then when does it become someone else’s fault? I believe the previous sentence started with two “yous” and therefore it likely should end with a “your”.

I think another area that has exploded is how many people are now on disability. I would propose to you that the reason for this is simply the inability of many to accept their own responsibility of their actions. That and also the fact that disability is easier to get simply because people making the judgments don’t want to be responsible for now granting these claims. See where I am going with this? It is an ugly spiral and we as Americans have a front row seat.

We are entering into an ugly political season now. Politicians are probably the worst for not accepting responsibility for mistakes because they deem it to be political suicide. By the way that fact goes for all sides of the aisle. I, for one, and quite probably I’m in a small minority, would find it refreshing to hear Romney say I screwed up in Massachusetts by putting his healthcare plan in place. I would love to hear Obama say I’ve really made a mess out of this healthcare plan and we should start over. It won’t happen. Both would consider it a sign of weakness but on the contrary I would consider it a sign of character.

So I guess my question is how do we break this cycle? It is far too rewarding for the lawyers and their clients. What happened to torte reform? That seems to have gone silent. I can tell you one reason. Most of our congressmen are lawyers so it would not be very self serving for that topic to surface and let’s face it politicians these days are all about serving themselves first! I think that is where it starts though.

The second and probably most critical way to create a change is by teaching our children personal responsibility. The hurdle with that idea is that we need to make parents actually be parents. (Again that’s the whole work thing) Parenting is not all fun and games. Sometimes it’s about teaching the hard lessons to your children so they are able to survive and flourish out in the cold world when they leave the nest. Your children will always have friends but they will only have two (hopefully) parents.

I could go on and on with this but whoever is still left reading this probably needs to get a life anyway. Hopefully I’ve given you a few points to ponder and think about.