On Honor and Personal Responsibility

People acquire honor and personal responsibility in many stages over their life. In their early youth most people learn honesty first. Most children need many lessons before they understand that being honest is not only an obligation, it is also a benefit. Most children eventually "get it" and understand that honesty toward others brings trust. That trust allows others to be honest in return. From this base friendships grow.

As we age, most people realize that honesty, as in telling the truth, is just a part of personal honor. What was simple as a small child gets more complicated as we mature and, hopefully, become wiser about life. What started out simply as not lying to Mommy and Daddy becomes complicated. One is expected to do the "right thing", behave properly, and share your life with others that have earned a shared love and respect unstintingly.

Growing in personal responsibility can often mean putting others before one's self. If people were incapable of this, the military, police departments, and fire departments could not function. Without selflessness civilization could not function. There is nothing that commands the respect of others as much as honor and personal responsibility. Here is some bad news for the rich and famous that do not use their positions and wealth for good works. Those people that act like they respect you, don't. They, like you, will take what they can get. Falter and you will be yesterdays news in the bottom of a birdcage.

Today we have a class of people that walk around, full of themselves, thinking they are the elite. In the past, I have referred to them as politocrats.  To get elected, they profess themselves to be honorable and responsible citizens that desire to work for the good of the country. I believe at least some of them mean that when they first campaign for office. Few, however, live up to that standard once elected. The two Sirens of power and money soon take control.

I have always felt that the highest honor was to serve your country in a totally selfless manner. Next your family. Finally yourself. To many in our nations capital have a priority that puts themselves first, their party second, and their country a very sorry last. This is why Washington is full of politocrats that malign, in the ugliest possible terms, their opposition. They will not negotiate. They demand. They trash the economy. They look like inept children to the rest of the world. They are manipulated by our enemies. There is not an adult in the room. There is not a statesman to be found.

The mid term election is coming up. If the American voters don't do anything to reverse the direction that our country is heading, the next generation will be a lost generation. All due to the loss of honor and responsibility of our elected officials.