School Shootings: Take Some Responsibility!

I am tired of excuses. It seems that our generation should be called the "pass the buck" generation. No one wants to be responsible for themselves. Why should they? It has become too easy pass blame on to someone else.

I work with several people who are recently out of jail, or who are waiting to be sent there. I've spoken with several of them, and they all have someone or something to blame for their troubles. "I had a bad childhood." "My wife left me." "He made me angry." These are the words of people who blame everyone but themselves for their wrong doings and for their misfortunes, but where do they learn this behavior? While the occasional bad seed slips through every now and then, a lack of responsibility is taught. It is not something someone is merely born with.

Society, it seems, encourages this type of behavior. Why else would a spilled cup of McDonald's coffee be worth two million dollars? I was in total shock when I heard about the Columbine killings. I was angered at the parents of the shooters. They wanted to blame everyone but their selves. Their own children were building bombs in the garage, and they didn't know or just didn't care. However, when it came time to learn what happened, to learn who was at fault, these parents blamed everyone else. They blamed video games. They blamed students at school. They blamed television. Everyone else in the world was at fault. They had nothing to do with the fact that they didn't know what their kids were up to. The really sad thing was that society, for the most part, went right along with it. They discussed banning games and clothing. They suggested peer remediation. They even added character education to school curriculums, but they never once said, "Hey, where were the parents?"

What does this tell us? What does this say about what we are teaching our children? Accepting responsibility is something that must be learned early on in life.