The Death Of American Responsibility.

Hey folks! Did you know I am a magician? It's true! In fact, I will do a magic trick for you right now. First, read this statement a friend I like to debate with sent to me recently about his view of a particular social issue...

"Gang violence is a major issue in this country. It uses significant resources and tax payer money to deal with. We, the public, pay for the repercussions every day of gang violence in America. A government program to use our tax dollars to give gang members free crack would be the best solution to this problem. With free crack will come a reduced amount of gang violence and the public will pay much less than if we simply throw money at dealing with the problem."

That's a pretty ridiculous statement, isn't it?

But wait! Now comes the magic trick. You see, this is not actually what my friend said. Watch as I alter only two different phrases to return this statement to what he actually said, and change the whole statement into something that not only doesn't sound ridiculous, but is something that many people in the country support currently...

"Unwanted pregnancy is a major issue in this country. It uses significant resources and tax payer money to deal with. We, the public, pay for the repercussions every day of unwanted pregnancy in America. A government program to use our tax dollars to give women free birth control would be the best solution to this problem. With free birth control will come a reduced amount of unwanted pregnancy and the public will pay much less than if we simply throw money at dealing with the problem."

For some readers, your first thought will be, "But, it's not the same thing!" Think about it for a moment. How is it any different?

I'm not comparing all women to gang members, obviously. I'm comparing one group of people responsible for their own actions to another.

America has become a country where we insist that our personal lack of responsibility is the fault of the public, not ourselves. If we misbehave, make sloppy choices in life or commit completely morally irresponsible acts, the fault lies on the general public for failing to prevent us from making those choices. This is what American has turned into.

If someone kills or injures themselves or goes financially bankrupt -- if their children are attacked by predators or grow up educationally or morally stunted -- this is OUR fault and WE have to pay for it. And now, as Monty Hall shows us what's behind curtain number three, we can see the next thing we shall all be responsible for is when a woman simply can't manage to keep her legs closed or a guy just can't bring himself to stop humping whatever he can get his hands on.

Getting pregnant is a very delicate act. Ask anyone who's tried to breed pandas. You don't just trip over a banana peel and wind up pregnant. It takes either a lot of effort or a lot of very shitty, very conscious decisions.

Sure, it will cost the American tax payer less to supply drugs to women to save them (and us) from the repercussions of their own bad decisions. But I, for one, miss the days when people accepted responsibility for their own choices. And, if it were up to me, not a single cent would be given to any American by the government to bail them out of their own stupidity. It is only through the consequences of our mistakes that we learn not to make those mistakes. Isn't it interesting that the more we save people from themselves, the more they need saving?