Accountability

What ever happened to accountability? Where you as an individual were held accountable for your own actions? These days if you step over the line and do something that is against the rules and laws of a decent society, you are not responsible. You had a bad childhood. The teachers at school didn’t understand you. Your parents stifled your creativity. The Doctor misdiagnosed you. The group of people you hung out with mislead you.

It doesn’t matter what you have done; it is always someone else’s fault.

Erik and Lyle Menendez blamed their parents for their own heinous actions, murdering those parents out of greed and avarice.

Always someone is crying for apologia as a defense. The defendant was mistreated, he/she was an outsider, if only someone had treated him/her better, he/she wouldn’t have done this horrible thing he/she is accused of.

When I was a child, if I screwed up my only defense was, I screwed up. And then I had to take my punishment. And punishment could be anything from loss of privileges, up to a paddling. And yes when I was a kid I got my rear end warmed up many times. It wasn’t that my parents were being mean or capricious, they were trying to instill in me a value system where I accepted responsibility for my actions, and as a matter of course I also learned that certain actions are unacceptable in society.

Unacceptable actions:

Stealing

Lying

Cheating

Fighting without cause

Harming others

Disrespecting others

Breaking the law

Threatening others

Being discourteous or rude

Intentionally hurting animals, (Note this does not mean I cannot hunt, it means that I cannot go out of my way to torture or harm animals for personal amusement)

Using illegal drugs

These are just a few of things that I recognize as my part of the contract I have with society. Everyone should have these as their contract, however over the years; a malaise has taken hold of our society. And the apologists have moved in, and have been standing in the way of enforcement of the societal contract. You cannot punish or discipline your child as it may hurt their ego. You cannot hold a child back in school, as they need to stay with their peer group. You have to let the child test their boundaries without fear of reprisal for their actions. And yet when that child does push those boundaries, you are responsible for their actions. Not Them.

My mother and father always let me know when I screwed up. And when I did well also they let me know. And when I crossed the line they let me know and they made sure I would never do it again. Today, kids are constantly crossing the line, over and over again. Why? They have no fear of a punishment, or reprisal for their actions. The apologists stand in the way of parental authority and discipline.

The standards by which I was raised have been changed and in many cases abolished. So many people sit and watch the news and wonder how the things we see on the news can be happening.

A tragic shooting occurs. And rather than placing the blame where it truly belongs, on the person who did the shooting. The apologists blame others. They cast aspersions on someone else. In the case of Jared Loughner, the sword being cast is two-fold. To shift the responsibility for his actions off of him, and to smear certain people for political means.

The Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, made a statement shortly after the shooting, blaming the “Rhetoric” for being the cause of the shooting.



Yet his own department had known that the shooter had made death threats to others before he went on his rampage. And since Jared Loughners mother worked for the county, they swept the threats under the rug. If they had responded properly, Jared Loughner would have undergone a psychiatric evaluation. The results of which could have prevented Loughner from purchasing the firearm he used, and it could have gotten him the help he desperately needed. But Apologia rears its head. And it is not the fault of Sheriff Dupnik that Jared shot 14 people and killed 6 of them. It is Sarah Palin’s fault, Glenn Beck’s fault, and Rush Limbaugh’s fault. It is the fault of everyone who is politically opposite of Sheriff Dupnik. He is not at fault for failing to follow the laws he has sworn to uphold. He is not at fault for cronyism to protect the reputation of a fellow county employee. So while Sheriff Dupnik and his fellow political cronies seek to use this tragedy for their own ends. Remember who is really at fault.


Jared Laughner.