Personal Responsibility
Personal responsibility is one of the key foundational concepts of this great country. We believe that a person should be responsible for his actions, and should reap the rewards or consequences appropriately. When we take responsibility, we admit we are the ones responsible for the choices we make. We, not other people or events, are responsible for the way we think and feel. It is our life, and we are in charge of it. We are free to enjoy it or disdain it. No, we are not responsible for all that happens to us, but we are responsible for how we think, feel, and act when they happen.
The founders believed in a small government which cared for the whole of the country by providing safety and security. Individual rights, and therefore responsibilities were given to the citizens by default. The Constitution of the United States specifically enumerates the only powers that the federal government was to have. All remaining powers were reserved to the People specifically in the Tenth Amendment.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
We as a Americans have a personal responsibility to maintain the powers that he Constitution reserves for us, and use it wisely. The more responsibility we take for our selves the less government is needed to “fill in the gaps.” Conversely, the larger the government gets, the less responsible we tend to be because the government always has a program to “help” us.
Since when was it American to abdicate responsibility for your own well being to the government?
Personal responsibility means owning up to your actions and facing the consequences. If you don’t study and prepare yourself for employment, don’t expect someone else to pay your way through life. If you are stupid enough to have sex out of wedlock and it produces a child, then BOTH persons are responsible for the care and raising of that child, not the state, and not the taxpayers! If you commit a crime you are responsible for the punishment that goes with it, regardless of your stature in society, or personal financial position. Responsible people do not blame drugs, alcohol, or emotional problems from their youth. Responsible people stand up and say “yes I did it, yes it was wrong, and yes I will accept the punishment, regardless of the consequences of the punishment.” As Americans we need to teach our children to accept personal responsibility, not victim-hood. It means having integrity, which is doing the right thing even when nobody is around. It means if you say you will do something then you do it, regardless of any inconvenience.
Personal responsibility begins by recognizing that your present situation is not the result of your genes, parents, education, job, luck, timing, health, or environment. Rather, it is the choices you have made and the actions you have taken that have brought you where you are today. Change your choices and actions and you will change the results that follow. As I frequently tell my daughter, “Everything you do has consequences, whether those are good or bad depends on the choice which precede it.”
Personal responsibility means not expecting someone else to do what you should be doing. As Americans it means looking to see how we can deal with the things life throws at us without relying on the government first. As Americans we believe that the government is our last resort to helping us. The first people we look to are our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our church. This is how it worked for years until FDR and his “New Deal”. After that came Johnson and “the Great Society”. Since when is a society great when people can’t take care of themselves and won’t take care of their relatives, friends, or neighbors?
The Declaration of Independence tells us that our rights are given to us as individuals. This is how the founders wrote it, they knew that we had to be personally responsible for the rights we are given by our Creator. We don’t get special rights because of our identity be it color, culture, or moral bent.
I say, dear friends, its time to reclaim what makes America great. It starts with us, in our houses, our families, and our communities. Teach your children to take responsibility, do this by showing them, use words if you must, but actions really do speak louder than words. A great site for learning personal responsibility is at coping.org.
Rattrap
