Blacksheep Speaks

Responsibility

I see a dangerous trend taking place in our country today. It seems that, whether through a mass need to justify ourselves, or through the portrayal of all people as "victims of society", we have ceased taking responsibility for our own actions. Everything seems to be someone else's fault; never our own. Lawsuits run rampant these days, clogging our already overworked judicial system with people seeking damages from other people or corporations for something they themselves could have prevented from happening had they bothered to use a little common sense. I am not talking about criminal cases here. I am talking about Mr. Joe Average suing his neighbor/neighborhood deli/local convienience store/whatever over some fool thing he had the ability to avoid.

Take the current lawsuits against the tobacco companies, for example. I smoke. Every single pack of cigarettes I open warns me that these things are dangerous and that I am risking my health. These warnings have been there at least since I started smoking back in 1985. Even before that, a person would have had to have been a hermit not to know that these things are bad for you. If I contract cancer, it's my own damned fault, and I know it. As did every single other person who has turned on a television set in the past 20 years or so. Now, I currently have a choice. I can continue to smoke, knowing it's bad for me...I can quit smoking, which isn't actually as hard as it sounds--having done this before, I can attest that after three days the physical cravings go away and it's all mental.....I can keep smoking and take my chances.....or I can whine and cry and scream that Big Bad Mr. Tobacco Company addicted me against my will. Uh, yeah, right. I know what I am doing, and so do you. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, now we have mass judgements against Big Bad Mr. Tobacco that are a little (*cough*) unreasonable. Most states have already allocated their share to various projects.....very few of which have anything whatsoever to do with helping the so-called "victims" of Big Bad Mr. Tobacco. My state plans to use their booty to repair roads, I believe. So now, when the "victim" is gasping his last breath, we can tell him, "Well....we have no money to actually HELP you, but just LOOK at the beautiful newly paved road upon which your funeral procession will travel!" But I digress.

So....how many of you guys out there are cruising the web on one of those infamous browsers supplied free when you bought your computer? Yeah, me too. Of course, I was really upset about this browser. What I REALLY wanted to do was run out and spend an additional few hundred bucks on more software so I could be here with you today. And it just thrills me to tears that the government and courts have ensured that in the future I may have to do exactly that. Yeah, buddy.

Hey, HERE'S an idea.....how about.....less government interference, and more individuals taking responsibility for their own actions? Wouldn't that be really cool? That way, we have a choice. And think of all the money we will save on lawyer's fees.