“Only by taking responsibility for oneself, to the greatest extent possible, can one ever be free, and only a free person can make responsible choices – between right and wrong, saving and spending, giving or taking.” – Paul Ryan

Responsibility : According to Merriam – Webster; the quality or state of being responsible such as:  moral, legal, or mental accountability.

When I watch the news I become so disenchanted with people who simply won’t take responsibility for their actions or their children’s actions.  My favorite one is where the lady blamed the police for her son crashing a stolen car.  In her words she said the police were picking on him because that was the first car he had stole.  Oh yeah, and he was only fourteen years old.  Really?  They were picking on him?  I guess the police would have been in the right if it were the second car he stole.

Parents seem to want to blame teachers for their children’s bad grades.  They never want to take the blame for any of it.  Some even go as far as to believe they have no responsibility in the education of their children other than financial.  After all isn’t that why the teachers get paid the big bucks?

One of my biggest pet peeves is the pet owner that gets an animal and after the animal has lived with them for five or six years and it is no longer a little one any more they shirk their responsibility and take it to the local pound.  The one that really gets my Scoobies in a knot are the ones that don’t want to take care of their pet of 14 years because they don’t want to deal with it and they take it to the pound.  They don’t want the responsibility of helping it through its bad days and the vet bills or cleaning up after it.  Really?  You OWE that much to that pet!

Use to be if people saw some lady getting raped bystanders would intervene and help her out and take the attacker down.  Now days the bystanders pull out their cellphones and start recording the act.  Ever wonder why the people recording crimes don’t put the cellphone down and help them?  Ain’t their responsibility to help another human being in trouble.  No siree!  That would be the responsibility of the police don’t ya know!

I remember in Missouri food stamp recipients use to get paper food stamp money to buy their groceries with.  They finally had to go to a card system because people couldn’t be responsible enough to use the food stamps correctly.

I apologize for the rant.  I could go on all night.  Why do you suppose their are so many folks now days that just won’t recognize responsibilities?  I have a couple ideas.  You probably won’t agree with me but that’s my story and I am sticking to it.

You think the preferential treatment of athletes might have something to do with it?  One that I am familiar with is the football player Leonard Little.  Little played for the St. Louis Rams.  He got drunk on his birthday and ran a red light and plowed his Navigator into a tiny little car killing the mother inside.  He got 90 days in jail and an 8 game suspension. Then, then 6 years later he gets picked up for drunk driving again and despite failing three field sobriety tests and refusing a breathalyzer test, and killing someone six years before, he was acquitted.  ACQUITTED!  Then he goes on to retire from the Rams.  Yep, let’s teach our kids responsibility.

Last but not least then I will shut up.  Would someone tell me how our welfare system teaches responsibility?  Our own government made people slaves of government handouts without educating them on how to break free of the system.  Our welfare program doesn’t teach people how to be responsible.  Our government has severely failed these people.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I know you may not agree with me but I will still respect your opinion.Be kind to one another, don’t squat with your spurs on and share the love. God Bless you one and all.

“At the end of the day,  you are solely responsible for your success and your failure.  And the sooner you realize that, you accept that, and integrate that into your work ethic, you will start being successful.  As long as you blame others for the reason you aren’t where you want to be, you will always be a failure.” – Erin Cummings

I think this quote can also be used for life in general.