Taking responsibility

Since I've been home on leave I've been watching more television than I normally do. Usually while folding laundry or something else mindless that I can not easily read or write while doing. Due to this I've been watching the news more often than usual. I've noticed a pattern that I find very disturbing. This is not really something new to me, it just seems more prominent than in the past.

Our world/nation today has a major issue with taking responsibility for our actions. I find it amazing how many stories I see about someone who has messed up and instead of admitting they've made a mistake and learning from the experience, they point the finger at someone else. It really disturbes me to see this happening so frequently!

Here are some examples:

1. Exit Exam for California High Schools - This year there are approx 47,000 high school seniors who did not pass the exit exam and therefore should not be graduating. This has been taken to court to get the exam thrown out! From what research I've done on it, part of what the exam tests is 10th grade level reading and 8th grade level math. I don't know about you, but if someone can not handle this they really should not be getting their high school diploma and continuing on either into the work force or college. If we allow this we are hurting our children more than helping them because we are not equipping them to deal with the real world.

2. Shooting in Natomas - Just a couple days ago there were four individuals who had been involved in an armed robbery. A police office confronted the people in a local shopping center. The driver of the car accelerated and hit the officer who then held onto the hood of the car and shot the driver while yelling at onlookers to get down. The driver died and the office was sent to the hospital for injuries he suffered to his leg when the driver hit him. It also showed his police cruiser with a large dent in the back of it and a flat tire. It is tragic that the driver was shot and killed by the officer, however when people commit crimes this is what occurs at times. Later there were interviews on the news with family members of the driver killed and with one of the individuals in the car. They all said he was a "nice guy" and was not trying to kill the officer. The family said he was only doing what he did because of the others in the car with him. Everyone said the police officer overreacted. (Interestingly, the original news reports claimed the officer was a hero, these other interviews came later and the story seemed to change!) Now, I don't know about you, but if I was an officer confronting four individuals involved in an armed robbery who then tried to run me over, I think I may have reacted the same way. In the end it appears the armed robbery was committed with a fake gun, however it appeared to be real. Once again, if I am a cop or someone being robbed and a gun is pointed at me I don't think I'd pause to ask the person if the gun was really real or not before I acted. I feel for the family that lost a family member, but to claim the kid was innocent (he was 19 years old) and to criticize the police officer is going too far. The way this country is going, it will soon be a crime to be a police officer and actually do your job, because you can get sued or punished for apprehending criminals.

There have been many more cases like these lately that I've noticed in which people's logic is twisted. Instead of saying "yep, I messed up!" the blame is laid at someone else's door. No wonder our youth have such problems. They do not know how to accept consequences for their actions, they do not know how to learn from their mistakes and they are not prepared for the real world. When will we wake up?

I've talked to my daycare/preschool provider about this recently and I'm amazed that when she has problems with kids, most of the other parents ask what was done to their child to "make" them do whatever they did that was wrong. When we are told about one of the other children doing something to one of ours, the first thing I ask is if my child did something to antagonize the other child. Not that the other child should not be punished, but I know how kids are, especially mine. I know as much as I love my little "angels", they very well did something that contributed to the situation and should probably bear some of the fault (though not all, since we are all responsible for our reactions!)

I'm very concerned about the world my children will be going into when they get older because there are so many out there that do not believe consequences for wrong actions apply to them. We can only blame ourselves for this since our children will never learn how to take care of themselves and be responsible for themselves if we do not teach them.