Rights & Responsibilities

Have you ever noticed that people can (and often do) get into some pretty heated discussions about individual rights in modern America? It seems that virtually everyone can get themselves into a lather about anything that they perceive as a challenge or danger to their personal existence. Issues as trivial as the right to an open parking space, or as monumental as personal privacy in the bedroom can become points of major annoyance to almost any citizen at almost any time.

However, while the majority of folks seem always ready to assert their rights; it seems to me that there are mighty few who are prepared to discuss their responsibilities. Some examples of this would be useful here.

Suppose for a moment that our precious right to vote was in danger. Now that is something that could truly start a revolution, and in fact, it has! We'd certainly be united on that as a nation, yet in past elections only about half of our eligible voters have exercised that precious right. Put another way, they have ignored their responsibility.

Here's another example. If our right to a jury trial is ever challenged there will certainly be a public uprising. Yet, many of us have received jury selection notices, and thought "oh no, jury duty!" (It's that responsibility thing again.)

Take the education issue! We all believe that our kids have a right to a good education; but (quite obviously) there is a huge percentage of the country's population who have abrogated their responsibility to be the primary source of that education for their kids! Then later in life, they just can't understand why their kids ignore them by placing them in nursing homes!

Medical care? Sure! We want the best -- cheaply or free -- but we still smoke tobacco, get plastered on booze, do recreational drugs, inject metallic dyes under our skin, punch holes all over ourselves, and still demand the right to sue for malpractice whenever we want to blame the doctors and hospitals.

What about responsibilities?