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| My son, realizing the responsibility along with the blessing. |
I’m afraid
there is a deep misunderstanding of the meaning of the word responsibility in
the world today. According to Merriam Webster, the definition of responsibility
is 1: the quality or state of being responsible: such as a: moral, legal, or
mental accountability, or b: RELIABILITY, TRUSTWORTHINESS. It is the last two
synonyms to which my mind goes whenever I think of my responsibilities.
I think of
my parents being responsible for me when I was a child. They cared for me, fed
me, sheltered me, and taught me right from wrong. They had a moral obligation
to try to teach me to be a good person. Good people make good citizens. We
lived in a neighborhood where we had a legal and moral responsibility, not just
to ourselves, but to our neighbors as well. We must never take actions that can
cause harm to others. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves. Those are
some of the earliest lessons in life.
When I
became a parent, I had the same responsibilities towards my children. And I
took them very seriously. I was a very mindful parent, always thinking about
not only what my children must be taught, but also what I felt they needed to
be taught, and what my life and my choices taught them by example. I was very conscious
of the fact that my children may very well pay more attention to what I did
rather than what I said, so it behooved me to be sure that my actions followed
my speech. There was no question what was right or wrong, and I never lied.
As my
children grew older and became more responsible for themselves, I also
realized, as my parents before me did, that you can say and do and teach all of
the right things, but having been born with God-given Free Will, people will
choose which lessons to retain and follow. And so, with a breath of kindness,
you must let them go their own way to find their path. I have felt that our
relationship with the divine falls along the same lines. We are given all that
we need, taught lessons if we are mindful of them, and shown the way; but we
must choose the path ourselves. It is a daunting responsibility at times.
As an adult,
I am very aware of my choices, and the consequences of them. As a parent, I am
also aware of the example I set. Having realized that we are all on this
journey together, I have also come to see, appreciate, and accept that we are
also both parent and child to each other at times in our live. ALL OF US,
TOGETHER. Maya Angelou first planted this seed in my heart, when she claimed me
as her daughter. If you like, she will claim you too. Simply read her book, “Letter
to my Daughter”. It was then that I looked around and realized how many mothers
I have been blessed with; mothers of my body, of my heart and of my soul, wonderful
women who have taught and nurtured me through the years. Some of them have been
co-journeyers for a long time. Some I have met once, never to see again. But
their lesson had such impact I will never forget them.
That
realization opened my eyes to my own potential. With every person I come into
relationship with, there is the possibility that I may be a mother to them in the
same ways that others have been mothers to me. I have lessons to teach, just as
I have lessons to learn. And just like with my own flesh and blood children, I
have the responsibility to speak them aloud. To remain silent is to be an
accomplice, an enabler. It is the ultimate in irresponsibility to say nothing
in the face of danger or evil. There but for the Grace of God go I. Let no one
walk alone.
This brings
me to the revelations of this week and the headlines of the day. We are in the
midst of a Pandemic. A new and therefore unknown disease is ravaging the world.
A virus borne by those wealthy enough to fly around and travel, but which will decimate
the poorest among us the most for lack of care and privilege. A virus that
spreads more virulently than at first believed, Covid-19 has become the
twenty-first century plague. It has now touched every continent, and almost
every country. Only the most remote areas remain free of it. But all it takes
is one person, who may not even know they are carrying it or have any symptoms
of it, to spread it and infect an entire town.
All of this
makes that thought of personal and physical responsibility so important. It has
put a spot light of sorts on national governments and their concepts of it as
it pertains to their citizens. Whose job is it to decide what to do, to stay
healthy, to slow the spread, to try to protect each other to remain safe?
Unchecked, the virus infects so many that hospitals have been quickly over run
and the people serving to care for the sick have fallen ill themselves. Medical
supplies and equipment have been needed in such numbers that reserves and stock
piles have been depleted and administrators and government officials have been
desperately searching for more. And throughout the entire process, the highest
officials in the United States of America have turned a blind eye and claimed
to have no responsibility at all.
The
President, his administration, his family, and the business people and corporations
who curry favor in his court have all been playing a very lethal game. To them,
it is all about money. Who has the most, and who can make the most. From the
very beginning, instead of warning the citizens of the country and taking
precautions to protect us, they have denied the science and downplayed the
threat while trying to position themselves to reap the most benefit both in
wealth and in position. They have politicized a pandemic for personal gain. And
in the course of those actions, have promoted the worst gas-lighting campaign
in my lifetime. Older citizens may even feel that it is the worst in their
lifetimes. There have been many comparisons drawn between Hitler’s regime and
this one.
In this
campaign, good and decent people have had their beliefs, and their Christian
faith, twisted in such a way that they are now crying that our government’s
efforts to protect and serve us is actually an effort to take away our rights
and should be fought against at all costs. Let that sink in for a minute. There
is a disease that spreads through the air, silent and invisible. Scientists and
doctors have begged people to stay home in order to stop the spread; stay home
no matter what. There is concrete and scientific proof that they speak the
truth. There are over flowing morgues, refrigerator trucks and ice skating
rinks full of dead bodies as proof to the science. There are hospitals and ICU’s
over run by sick people, losing staff to the illness while they fight. And the
science deniers want you to believe that the pastor being told not to have
church on Sunday is a denial of your constitutional rights to assemble and to
worship in any way you see fit.
I would
argue that all of the people having Covid-19 parties in rebellion and planning
to pack the churches for Easter are denying me my rights to life, freedom, and
the pursuit of happiness. Living in an apocalyptic society where going out for
bread and milk literally puts my life at risk of disease over rides everything
else. WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO OURSELVES, OUR FAMILIES, AND OUR COMMUNITIES
TO PROTECT EACH OTHER FROM HARM. Our government issuing shelter-in-place-orders
is what we have hired and paid them to do. Just like we have hired them and paid
them to fix the pot holes, build the bridges, and monitor the food and medicine
supplies to keep us safe and healthy.
When did
people forget that the government is there to work for us? We the People of
these United States... We choose who goes to work, we tell them the laws to
pass, and we pay the bill. Taxes are not a punishment, they are not something
robbed from us; they are a measure of our privilege. Because we choose to live
in a land where we say we make the rules, we must foot the bill. So we pay our taxes,
which pay the salaries of those we have asked to work for us. And they are, by
definition of their job, supposed to work for all of us, because that is how
the rules were written. Don’t let the fancy, old-fashioned language confuse
you. They take an oath to abide by the contract. And the contract says that we
are one country, we are in this together, and they are supposed to do
everything possible to protect and care for us. If the government is not
responsible for us, why do we have such a huge military? Why do we have a
department of transportation to maintain infrastructure? To live without the
structures of governance is to live in anarchy. You can’t pick and choose when
you want the government to work for you, and when you want to pretend it doesn’t
exist simply because you don’t want to play by the rules right now. The, “If I
can’t win, I don’t want to play” mentality is what brought you Hitler and Mussolini.
I really thought we had put that to rest, but it is back with a vengeance.
It all boils
down to one thing, responsibility. Who has it, who doesn’t, and who cares? My
father taught me that my word is my bond. If I want to be seen as trustworthy,
I must be trustworthy. If I want trustworthy people to take care of the nation,
I must help to get them elected. It is really that simple. You cannot say that
the ends justify the means. You cannot say that it doesn’t matter how he has
cheated and who he as hurt or what laws he has broken as long as he pays lip
service to that one issue you have decided is more important than anything
else. If you want to insist on responsibility for life, then you must ensure
responsibility for all aspects of life, at all times, in all ways, in all
places, regardless of how different from you that life is. Jesus taught us to love
one another, period. How incredibly loving is it to say that your life means so
much to me that I will stay home to protect it? Please, love your neighbor as
yourself. Stay home and wash your hands.
