It’s Your Fault…I Hope You Know That!

Chad Prather |

Jul 14, 2017

It’s official. We now live in a society where no one has to take responsibility for their decisions or actions. A man sets the cruise control on his RV and then steps back to the kitchen to make a sandwich and has a wreck. What does he do? He sues the RV manufacturer. Yes, that actually happened folks.

A person spills hot coffee in their lap and the natural response is to sue the restaurant.

A so-called celebrity mockingly holds up the severed head of the president. She immediately gets blasted for it by peers and opposition alike. So she apologizes, but not
for the act but for the fact it wasn’t well received. When the apology doesn’t bring the desired results she lawyers up and blames the president himself for her actions.

All this idiocy would be funny if all the scenarios were untrue. You can’t make this stuff up. People get pregnant and have abortions and call it healthcare or women’s rights. People politicize and cram their sexuality down everyone’s throats and then scream ‘bullying’ when everyone doesn’t bow to their demands for acceptance. Folks preach AT the world about the dangers of climate change yet still drive their cars, heat and cool their homes and scream bloody murder when their power goes off. In today’s culture all we do is point the finger at each other and play the blame game. It would seem that these days no one is taking personal responsibility or accountability for their actions.

In 2013 a horrific car accident that happened in my hometown of Burleson, TX took the lives of four individuals and seriously injured two more. The cause of the wreck was the responsibility of a 16 year old drunk driver by the name of Ethan Couch. Couch was sentenced to a mere 10 years of PROBATION because the judge presiding over the case decided that Couch suffered from a condition that a psychologist testified and called “affluenza.” Apparently, in the estimation of the court, Couch was the true victim as he was living in a dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy parents that caused him to not know right from wrong.

In 2015 the “affluenced” Mr. Couch was caught on video at a party where others were drinking. This violated his probation. Subsequently he missed a meeting with his probation officer so his mother, fearing her precious baby boy would be arrested, scooped him up and hauled it to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Guess what! He got caught. The judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail for each of the four people he killed – two years. Still a mild slap on the wrist.

In 2014 Ethan Couch cost tax payers $150,000 in rehab expenses because the court determined that his parents were not financially capable of paying his bill. I almost want to stop typing right now and just let you stew on all of that. Absolutely ridiculous. How much drama, money, exposure, ruin, reputation, life, etc. could have been saved if Ethan Couch’s parents had held him responsible for all of his actions from childhood? When did teaching a child to be responsible become harsh and unreasonable?

Let’s look at our own lives. In what areas are we shirking responsibility and waiting for someone else to pick up the tab and carry the burden? Typically these are the traits that are attributed to toddlers and small children. Responsibility is the “ability to respond.” It is a basic trait of life. In fact it is proof of life. To lack responsibility is to lack life itself.

Stop playing the blame game and carry your own weight. Do not continue to feed the beast that has become accepted in our culture where we become navel gazing victims that remain steadfastly focused on what’s been done to us rather than what we can do to bring ourselves out of a pit of self-pity and blame. Own it!