It’s time men and women, young and old, began accepting responsibility for their behavior—Mackenzie Phillips
being the latest in a long line of celebrities who want to blame their parents for their troubles.
It is rare that in this country people don’t have a choice. They have decided to go with whatever is most convenient or most pleasurable. Being drunk or on drugs are also decisions they make. To try to blame it on those factors is like saying, “I didn’t shoot the gun in my hand; the gun just went off by itself, six times. It’s not my fault that someone was in the way of the bullets.”
We all have done and do things we later regret, but not accepting responsibility for them keeps us from learning from them and growing up to be responsible adults.
It’s easy to blame others; I even find online card players who blame their bad playing on others. But it’s avoiding reality and the responsibility to try to do better. And we should have no respect for those who won’t take responsibility for their actions.
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2009.