Responsibility

I recently found another blog of someone I went to college with and it shocks me. He is so totally opposite of my views which is fine that doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the venom that is used as he cusses and wishes such bad things on people who don’t agree with his opinion. This so different from how I remember him but he was younger than me and maybe I didn’t really know him. I can’t imagine trying to get people to agree with me while wishing horrible things on someone who just died in between lots of f-words. He appears full of anger and to me shows some signs of a deep underlying sense of dissatisfaction in himself. I think it is a good thing that not everyone in the world agrees with me. I don’t wish bad things to happen to them. Mostly because of my well-built Catholic guilt system, I don’t need to add to my long list of things I already feel guilty about.
This begs the question: When does one person’s rights supercede those of another? For instance, it would be reasonable to assume that a person could listen to music in their car as loud as they would like. However, when a car pulls up beside me at a light and their music is as loud in my car as in theirs does that violate my rights? I’ve tried blaring my country music as loud but lets face it George Jones doesn’t produce the same amount of bass as Ludacris. I, too, like rap so it is not a distaste of the music. I usually just try to do lots of breathing exercises and pray for my own salvation after my initial mean and horrible thoughts of the other driver.
Personally I think it all comes down to personal responsibility. It is my responsibility to use my power for good. My power is freedom in this case. In high school I didn’t have a set curfew. My grandparents and I would talk about my plans and where I planned to go and set a curfew for that night based on the events and the weather. I was never ever late for my curfew for the night. I knew I had a good thing going and I was about to mess with it or lose it. Not because I was a perfect teen. I was quite wild but just within my time limit.
In today’s society I am beginning to worry about the acceptance of personal responsibility. If I had missed my curfew it would have been my fault but today would it be my grandparents for being unreasonable? After all I was just a teen being a teen – right? I have been concerned the past couple days because of the current example that is playing out in the papers and any other media medium the Hilton clan can find. I have had this little hint of sympathy for Paris the past few days. Not because I don’t think she should have to serve her time or that she didn’t deserve what she got but because I don’t think she has any personal responsibility. She is displaying no good coping mechanisms for this situation. She does not appear to have any inner strength, dignity or consciousness to draw on. For this I blame her parents, however, trite that phrase may be. Has she been taught any personal responsibility? So back to the main question when does one’s rights supercede another’s? Paris might not have violated my rights but she did violate the law. She is just lucky that so far neither she, Brittany, Lindsey nor their entourage hasn’t killed anyone. Whether we like it or not she is a role model to many young girls and women. She has the opportunity to teach about personal responsibility. She has the ability to prove that one cannot just violate the law because they can. Without that law another person’s right to life could be taken. For her initial crime she was put on probation and would have served no time but then she violated that probation twice and brought on this media circus.
I sort of went off course from the opening paragraph but I just went with my stream of consciousness. My old college classmate has fallen in the gray area of life where he believes everyone should be able to do whatever they want unless they disagree with him. This includes promoting certain actions that break the law and would be considered theft in my moral world. I find this just as troubling as Paris’ in ability to find dignity in personal responsibility. I don’t say this because I think I am better than either one of them. We all struggle to find ourselves and our way in the world. I hope that in my blog and my life I show that to make mistakes is ok but to not continue searching for a better way or a richer life would be doing us a disservice. I pray that both of them find whatever it is they feel they are lacking in their life. I hope this a turning point for Paris and she can become a good example for others. Whatever the case maybe I am talking responsibility for my words. Go ahead and disagree if you like just don’t pull up beside me with John Tesh at max. volume.