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Theresa's Tidbits: Responsibility a bygone word?
Theresa Seraphim
for Spotlight
The smashed hood of my car has prompted me to think about the area of responsibility for one’s actions.
I discovered the situation after the fact (try writing a police report when you know no details about what happened!). The police officer I reported it to told me it looked like it occurred as the other driver backed up slowly.
The point is, there was no note, meaning either the other person didn’t know they had hit me (although one would think they would have felt a bump and investigated), or they just didn’t care to leave their particulars.
Here’s the question: Why does the act of taking responsibility seem to be going the way of the dodo?
It’s not just my car. When something goes wrong in government, politicians pass the buck faster than Usain Bolt can set a new world record.
The province has to cut education and health care funding – the economy’s not too good yet. (Well, yeah, we should have a source of monies that doesn’t depend on the economy, but that would take some effort to implement.)
What that whistle-blower is saying is not credible – how could we have known detainees were being tortured? (Well, yeah, some of us might have seen the emails and reports, but what can we do? Once we let the Afghans go, we’re not responsible for what happens to them.)
And so on.
While we’re at it, let’s look at how some parents are teaching their kids to evade responsibility.
Police officers come to the front door with Johnny, who has been caught stealing a candy bar by the store clerk. In times past, Johnny would have been marched back to the store, with money from his piggy bank, to pay for the goods. These days, the officers are just as likely to hear, “My Johnny would never do that! Don’t you dare lay a finger on him or I’ll sue you!”
No wonder some members of this generation are growing up thinking they don’t have to own up to any of their actions. It’s easy to see where this “I’ll do whatever I want” attitude leads to – to court and jail, or just to a lifetime of not caring for anyone else.
If everyone adopted that mindset, it would be a very sad and lonely world. And we would not be as mature and we could, and should, be.
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