What I Believe (part 3)

I believe in personal responsibility.

I don't believe that everything that happens to a person is someone else's fault. Sometimes it is the fault of others. Sometimes it isn't, it's their own fault. And sometimes it's no one's fault.

I don't believe that anyone should expect to be given things, or taken care of. I don't believe that anyone is responsible to take care of anyone else (other than spouses, children, and parents), and I believe that if you want something, then you need to earn it (it will mean more that way). You are responsible for your own needs and wants.

I believe that personal responsibility means that you have to be true to your word. If you say something, you must be responsible to keep your word.

I believe that part of personal responsibility includes that you need to give back to your community. I was fortunate enough to be able to play organized baseball as a young boy. I put in years on the board of directors of the leagues my sons played in. One day they asked me what they could do pay me back. Wrong question. From then on they participated in field maintenance days. They were the only non-dads, but they were there, and they worked. They put in to the system, in order to get something out. I also told them that they'd pay me back by ensuring the same opportunity to the kids in their children's generation. I took from the system as a child. I was responsible for putting something back in.

I find that personal responsibility seems intimately linked in my own mind to the previous topic - fiscal sanity. I fail to see how I could have one without the other.