It’s Not My Job and It’s Not My Fault

Two frequently used excuses I would like to put into context.

It’s not my job to run the government, and its not my fault the country is now trillions of dollars in debt.  Whose fault is it?  In our republic we, the citizens, elect our representatives to enact legislation supposedly for the nation.  We have allowed those representatives to stay in office for term after term so they no longer function for us, but for those who contribute to their campaigns or in other ways enrich them.  They have lost complete understanding of the value we place in our tax dollars and look at funds only in the abstract.  If keeping a Representative or Senator in office for life is not our fault whose is it?  Each is just one small voice, but as the tea party has begun to teach we can band together and be a chorus.  If we want to be a nation, we must be involved and pay attention to what our representatives do with our tax dollars.  If we look to them to fix everything they will fix nothing.  If we look to them to be smarter than us we fail to give ourselves the credit we deserve.  We must look first to ourselves for solutions and then to the government, not the other way around.

It is not my job to teach children, and its not my fault children don’t learn.  Do we really think it is the fault of bad teachers?  Is the world made up of universally bad teachers?  If it is not your job, as a parent or adult, to teach children then clearly it must be your fault they can’t learn.  If we forsake our role as model for children to follow, and we let them believe pro athletes are the best, we get kids who think dunking a basketball or running a 4.4 forty is all that matters in life.  We get kids who know they know more than their elders, and think drugs, either performance enhancing or recreational, are the way to be cool.  Unless we are hermits, each of us influence children everyday.  If we are rude, they learn rudeness, if we are mean they learn meanness, if we hate, they hate.  If, on the other hand, we show them respect and demand respect in return, they will learn respect.  If we are honest, and demand honesty they will learn that too.  If, when dealing with teachers, we listen, we challenge, and we don’t accept our kids excuses when we get notes home, perhaps they will learn.  Teachers are not always right, but neither are they always wrong.  It takes both Parents and Teachers for children to learn.

It’s not my job to keep this family together, its not my fault we are getting a divorce.  Really?  Is divorce really “no fault?”  If not no fault is it always the other sides fault?  Don’t get me wrong, there are legitimate reasons for divorce, and there are times marriage must end for the preservation of life, but I think we’ve reached a point in our society where marriage is no longer a vow, a commitment, or a blessing.  It is more of a phase, kind of like acne.  When things are inconvenient we walk away.  It seems trite to “stay together for the kids.”  and the entertainment industry is now showing us we really don’t need to, unless we want a SITCOM or a reality show, but whose job is it to show children commitment and the conflicts life inevitably brings to you and the adversity you have to work through together?  Its not my job is it?

 is my job to leave the world better than I found it.  If each of us would take this as our first responsibility I wonder what tomorrow would be like?