A CULTURE OF RESPONSIBILITY

by Travis Prinzi - March 29, 2004

There are two extremely important words that begin with “R.” They go together, and they should never be separated. They are: “Rights” and “Responsibility.” I’m going to share with you a quote from the little-noticed Bush fundraiser speech in Boston from March 25:

"We stand for a culture of responsibility in America. We're changing the culture of our country from one that has said, 'if it feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else', to a culture in which each of us understands we are responsible for the decisions we make in life. If you're fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you're responsible for loving your child with all your heart. If you're worried about the quality of the education in the community in which you live, you're responsible for doing something about it. If you're a CEO in corporate America, you're responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and your employees. (Applause.) And in the responsibility society, each of us is responsible for loving our neighbor, just like we'd like to be loved ourselves."

If I hadn’t been in a room where someone else was sleeping nearby, I would have stood up and applauded, right there all by myself. In politics, the blame game is a regular tactic based primarily on partisan rhetoric rather than facts. How many times have we heard Kerry complain that Bush misled the American people about the reasons we went to war with Iraq? If you haven’t fallen asleep after his first few sentences of his speeches, you’ve probably heard this a few times. How many times does Kerry have to be told that Bush was not the only one who read the intelligence and believed there was a threat?

But partisan politics aside, Bush has made a solid commentary on the mentality of far too many people in America today. Most people seem to think that the very fact that we have “rights” entitles us to everything we want, whether we deserve it or not. We can be irresponsible, frivolous, and downright stupid; we can take for granted, misuse, and abuse our rights - and we still think we deserve not only what we need, but whatever we want.

President Bush’s example of a parent's responsibility towards his or her child is perfect. Many of my closest friends are teachers, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories about the parents and the kids who want their “right” to a diploma for the teen, regardless of their lack of responsibility to actually do the work.

“I’m here because my son says you told him he’s not going to pass his senior year.”

“I’m sorry, but your son comes to school every morning high or with a hangover, never turns in his homework, and skips class regularly. He is failing 3 of his classes.”

“Well, doesn’t the school have policies to prevent all that?”

“Yes, ma’am, and we called you 4 times and left messages, and we emailed you three times. See, we have that all on file here. And you never responded.”

“You never contacted me!”

“It’s on file right here, ma’am. It’s right in front of you.”

“You failed my child! It’s your fault!”

The appropriate response at this point would be, “You failed your own child, ma’am. We did all we could.” You cannot divorce “rights” from “responsibility.” (Divorce is, of course, directly related to the problem described above. But that’s another column).

Now consider with me the current abortion issue for a moment. Courts are now hearing arguments that challenge the partial birth abortion ban. CollegeConservative.com is already addressing this issue, but let’s apply the principles of a “culture of responsibility.” A. Stephen Hut, Jr. is the plaintiff arguing against the late-term abortion ban. In his opening statement, he said the following:

"To sum up, our evidence will show the court that this act unconstitutionally compromises a woman's right to reproductive choice and it is designed to remove the abortion alternatives."

Now wait just a minute, Jabba. (Get it? Hut?) A woman’s right to reproductive choice is compromised if she can’t kill the kid in a later trimester? Extreme issues of rape aside, what about combining “right” with “responsibility” and expecting women to make the reproductive choice to not get pregnant in the first place? The truth is, most women do have plenty of reproductive choice; it exists in all the choices they make prior to getting pregnant. And furthermore, Mr. Hut, our country already (quite unfortunately) allows women to kill their unborn children in the early stages of pregnancy. Do you really think they need more “rights” in their reproductive choice than that?

People who have actually sacrificed their selfish desires to protect our rights, sometimes to the point of death, would be appalled at the concept that we can have rights without responsibility.

I haven’t heard anyone talk about wanting a culture shift of this kind for quite some time; and I want him to stay in office. I want to see the culture transform into one “in which each of us understands we are responsible for the decisions we make in life.” Can one President pull that off in four more years? Not likely. But I’m glad to have someone in office who wants to get the winds of change blowing in that direction.

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www.collegeconservative.com