R Is For Responsibility

I've heard the “R” word quite a bit of late as I have listened to NPR's reporting of the riots in Britain. This morning it was particularly ubiquitous as the government, the police, and the rioters talked about who was “reponsible”.

Let's start off by making something abundantly clear: responsibility and blame are not the same thing. What I heard on the radio this morning was everyone trying to find someone else to blame for what happened.

Responsibility is a different and more complex question. Is the government responsible because the rioters were, by and large, disaffected and dis-enfranchised? Is the police responsible because they didn't “keep the lid” on the rioters and, according to some, “coddled” them? Were the rioters responsible because of their cavalier attitudes to the sanctity of private property, the British class system, and the society's insistence that the fringe elements remain quietly and politely on the fringe?

Well, I don't know. In fact, there is so much that I don't know about the situation – except that the word “responsibility” is being bandied about – that perhaps we should consider an issue closer to home.

What about unemployment? That is altogether too close to home for some of us. Let me mention a case in point. My son works at Walmart as a night stocker. More often than not, he works late because the local Walmart keeps a skeleton crew on nights and refuses to hire more workers. The Walmart employees are not allowed to accrue over-time, so despite the fact that they have to work over-time to get the work done, they also have to cut any overtime hours.

Are you following me? I know it doesn't seem to make sense but it is the Walmart way.

While I don't see any evidence that Walmart is suffering in today's economy, neither do I see any evidence that it is doing anything to ameliorate the situation. The question is, is Walmart and other companies like it, responsible for unemployment? They are multi-national corporations manidated by their stock-holders to keep an eye on the bottom-line. Is their only responsibility to make their stock-holders rich?

It is no secret that there is little love lost between President Obama and Walmart. If you had been a Walmart employee in 2008 (as I was), you would have been fed a steady diet of the company line predicting dire consequences for the economy if Obama was elected. You might not have been mistaken if you sensed a not-always-subtle pressure to vote Republican.

Now Walmart's friends, the Republican, are blaming President Obama for the unemployment problem (But, remember, blame and responsibility are two different things.) It is, of course, purely speculation on my part, but I have to wonder if Walmart and similar corporations are not waiting for a more favorable administration – for them – before they will left a finger to add jobs.

And that makes me wonder who is responsible for the jobless rate. It is so obvious that it seems superfluous to point it out, but let's break that word “responsible” down to its component parts. Response is an attitude or action taken in answer to some circumstance. Ible is a variation of the more familiar Able. To be responsible, then, is to be able to respond appropriately to a given situation.

Who, then, is “responsible” for joblessness? Those corporations which are able to hire but refrain from doing so, or a President who is blocked at every move by the friends of those corporation?

Well, you undoubtedly have your own opinion on the matter and you may or may not agree with me.
You are welcome to express your opinion in a comment or in your own blog. But right now, I would like for us to focus a little more narrowly.

What is your situation? Are you “responsible” for it? Yes. You are able to respond to your own situation – in fact, you can't help but respond to it for even doing nothing is a response. But are you to blame for your situation? The answer to that question varies not only with each of us but also with the situations we find ourselves in. My suggestion is that you take responsibility – that you respond in the way that seems best for the sake of all – but that you not take the blame unless it is actually yours.

When it comes right down to it, we all have the responsibility to make this a better world and we are all able to respond in some positive way to the problems we face – if we have the will to do it. Will you take responsibility?