Responsibility and Sacrifice

At the press conference last night, President Obama once again spoke about two of the key words he has been emphasizing during the first two months of his presidency: responsibility and sacrifice. Let's talk about what these words really mean, starting with responsibility.

What does it mean to be responsible? Well, you're responsible when you work for a living, when you do your homework, when you provide for your family, when you pay your taxes. I think we can all agree that those are things a responsible person does. But what about the person who doesn't work, who doesn't provide for their family, who drops out of school, who doesn't pay taxes? Is that person responsible? By Joe Biden's definition, they're certainly not patriotic. But are they even responsible?

What about sacrifice? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the definition of sacrifice, in this context, is "forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim." So, in order to SACRIFICE something, you need to have something highly valued to forfeit in the first place, and you need to voluntarily give it up in order to achieve some greater good. So, once again, someone who pays a higher tax rate will be SACRIFICING part of their income in order to help society as a whole.

So, obviously, people who are already responsible are being asked to sacrifice in order to help the nation as a whole. But what about the LESS responsible people, or the IRRESPONSIBLE people? Are they being asked to sacrifice anything? Are they being asked to GIVE UP something for the common good? In fact, are they even being asked to be more responsible?

Does anyone else see the basic flaw here? Shouldn't we be asking SOMETHING...ANYTHING from the recipients of the sacrifice that most of us are being asked to make? If, as Americans, we're all really in the same boat and we all need to work for the common good, then shouldn't we all have to make some kind of sacrifice? Furthermore, is it right that the more RESPONSIBLE members of society are being punished by having to provide to the less responsible members? Does that send the right message?

I think President Obama needs to understand that this is not about the "class warfare" that he and Mr. Emanuel are trying to provoke. Rather it is about basic fairness and right vs. wrong. The same way we don't ask children with A's on their report cards to "sacrifice" some of those A's and give them to the less fortunate C studnets, we should not be TAKING from the responsible adults and GIVING to the less responsible adults, with no strings attached. Rewarding irresponsibility is not the answer to ushering in a new era of responsibility.