Accountability

Have we lost accountability? Have we lost taking personal responsibility for our own actions. Some in the political arena are saying that government has little or no legitimate role in our lives. We need to restore caveat emptor and all will be o.k. again. While we may have more government involvement n some areas than we’d like, we probably have too little in other areas. And if we truly had caveat emptor all over, we would soon have anarchy and civil unrest.

In one area, however, this issue was brought home to me in a very different light. A former military man spoke on television recently (as well as written a book) about the lack of responsibility of the American people. He said this in the context of so many of our troops returning home with maladies, who need treatment of one sort or another, and who need jobs … and their needs are not being met. His assertion is that the American public can ignore these issues because we are not involved in the war. Yes, we pay for it … maybe. But, that’s it.

In the past, there was a draft. If we went to war, the draft increased and many of the people we knew would be called up. Today, we have a professional army and so our daily lives are not disturbed. In the past, when we went to war, there was a special assessment or increased tax to pay for the war. When we went to war in Iraq, there was no such increase. In fact, taxes were lowered, a significant factor in our current deficit discussions.

The point is that we’ve lost touch with our personal responsibility and accountability … and we need to get it back. Not sure how to do this, but we need to have this discussion. Perhaps the forthcoming political debate will address this issue.  Just my $.02 worth.

Categorized in: Personal Thoughts