"It's not my fault." Those immortal words from Han Solo. But that’s where it should end. I’m sick to death of the deterioration of accountability and responsibility. Has the specter of a mistake become so grim that we no longer can own up to our actions? Well, that’s crap, I say! And I don’t want to hear about our over litigious society. I know about it and I don’t care…nay, WON’T care. I am perfectly comfortable making decisions for myself and my family and will accept any and all consequences that come my way because of them.
Let’s face it. There are things that will be out of our control. But for everything else, there should be personal choice. At every turn, every day, I see and hear excuses being made for every little thing that goes wrong in someone’s life. That’s not to say that outside forces can’t sweep in and turn things to shit, but let’s all try to recognize that and do what we can otherwise.
I’m not sure where it starts…home, school, work? Do we begin this cycle at home so mom and dad won’t yell at us? Understandable since parents can be (at times, should be) pretty scary when you’re four. Do we begin at school to avoid disappointment from teachers? Less understandable in my book. I never wanted to disappoint anyone in school, but should we have been taught to do our best and damn the results? I know I was always told that, and I pass that along to my kids daily. Do we start when we enter the workforce so that we can keep our jobs and make a better living? Well, what kind of living is that – always being in fear of admonishment or scrutiny? Shouldn’t we do our jobs as we see them, to the best of our abilities, and if the boss doesn’t like it then move on? This one’s a bit tougher to rail against, but I think you get my point.
Our entire society is so over the top about this that we’ve actually given over larger and larger chunks of our decision making to our elected officials. I don’t think that is such a hot idea. I vote in every election, and hope that you do as well, but I don’t really know the people we put in office. I’m OK with them keeping things from falling down around us, sort of have to be since it’s the only system we have at the moment, but I’ll be damned if I ever relax enough to be happy about them dictating personal choices for me.
Helmet and seatbelt laws are just the beginning. Of course they are both great, life saving protections, and use them every day. BUT IT SHOULD BE MY CHOICE! But what if I get hurt because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt? My fault…MINE. I know this could open a can of worms, but consider this. What happens if you receive and injury because you were wearing a seat belt? Does the government own up since they make you wear it? Hell, no.
There’s a great saying, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness, than it is to get permission.” I’ve taken this to heart. I’m a very smart, and mostly sensible man. So when I decide that something can/could/should be done the way I see it, then I do it. Sometimes that goes horribly and inconceivably wrong. And when it does, it's my fault, and I’ll be the first to say so. Every so often there are terrible, sometime life changing consequences to those decisions. But that’s the way I’d want it. My choice, my sentence.
It all comes to this. Stop bitching and stand up for yourself. You are nothing but weak if you let policy makers keep taking decisions out of your hands. Why do we stand for it? Accepting it does nothing but show that you are incapable of making your own decisions and that you like it that way.
That is all.
Ralston has spoken
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