IRRESPONSIBILITY STARTS WITH 'I'

Let's talk about "responsibility," since that word is on the bright
yellow banner across the Jasper County school board building. Back in
the old, old days of basketball, when you committed a foul on an
opposing team member, you raised your hand. That little admission of
responsibility has fallen by the wayside, as have so many others. Did
you ever wonder why?

It's simply because people are not responsible for their own acts
anymore. The new cry is, "Find a scapegoat!"

Remember the good old days?

Sure you do. We were all in high school, and there was a little
smoking area in back of the school, where you could (with a signed
permission slip) go back and light a cigarette on your breaks.

We were all responsible for our own actions back then. The store
clerks weren't supposed to be our mommies and daddies; they were in
business to retail goods. Whoever had the money bought the goods.

Those who committed crimes and tried to blame "the crowd" or "the
drugs" or "the liquor" were ostracized completely. If you committed a
crime and blamed anyone or anything, you were a whiner, you were
definitely not cool. Buying cigarettes was not a crime. Buying drugs
was criminal, but those who did it were only hurting themselves, and
law enforcement shrugged its shoulders and went on to arrest those who
hurt others.

Most of the 'heads and dopers grew up, had kids and dropped out of the
drug scene. They became responsible adults, parents who talked
honestly to their kids about what drugs could do to a person, why they
were bad for you, why the adrenalin rush of accomplishing a goal was
much better than cocaine. Besides, you could go to sleep afterward
with no ill effects.

Suddenly, though, we were all responsible for the drug addicts robbing
and killing people for drug money. Suddenly, drug dealing became a
high-risk, deadly business, with shootouts and violence and gangs,
just like in the days of Prohibition.

As the laws clamped tighter and tighter around us all - not just the
dealers and pushers, but searches and property seizures and
accusations leveled at every member of society - we sat back in amazement.

The new laws and tighter enforcement haven't resulted in fewer
addicts, less drugs being shipped in over land and over sea and even
airborne. If anything, it's gotten worse.

Prices have gone up, as has corruption in every level of government.
People look at police with fear and loathing. Is he profiling me? Why
is he following me? What will he do - confiscate my car, my home,
throw me in jail? Did the guy I bought this car from last week leave a
crack pipe under the seat? Cops get killed for less marijuana than it
takes to make a joint - and the killer gets the sympathy.

The criminals blame their violent intrusions on other peoples' lives
on the drugs - and get away with it!

What happened to personal responsibility, what happened to individual
choice, what happened to the right to do as you please as long as you
harm no one else?

What happened to murderers - either behind the wheel of a car or the
hammer of a pistol - having to pay the price for taking away someone
else's life? Now all they have to do is whimper, blame the drugs or
booze, and they get light sentences - while their victim is still
dead, dead, dead.

How can we expect to teach our children responsibility when our own
laws, our own courts, tell them that they can harm not only themselves
but others with no repercussion, no fault, no blame?

When "society" or "drugs" or "demon rum" or "cigarettes" are to blame,
then no one is to blame for making the wrong choices, no one is
responsible, and no one suffers.

No one, that is, but all of us ... the innocent victims of those who
get away with assaulting us, stealing from us, injuring us, time and
time again. No fault, no foul. Right?