Freedom of choice. What a gift! Perhaps this is the greatest gift we inherit as human beings. The United States. What a country!

With ideals intent on supporting individual liberties, we enjoy our freedoms in ways other countries can hardly fathom.

Yet with these liberties, with this freedom of choice, comes something that many have forgotten.

Responsibility.

Sadly, many people choose to forget the responsibility inherent in their decisions,any time it doesn’t suit them.

Whenever there is success, everyone scrambles for the recognition.

“It was me,” they claim.

Along comes failure, and no one steps up.

“Talk to my boss” or “I did this because …”

Excuses pile up.

No one’s to blame.

No one’s responsible.

Once upon a time, people could be taken at their word.

Trust existed in private and public relationships.

People took seriously their honor and reputations.

Integrity existed.

Where has this time gone?

Unfortunately, no one knows. Maybe it slipped away slowly.

With each small oversight in morals, each indiscretion that was excused, each crime that was left unpunished, each lie that was overlooked, our society has slowly compromised its integrity.

It didn’t happen over night, but gradually. So gradually, we hardly noticed.

Gradual or not, it did happen.

Everyone complains about it.

In fact, everyone complains about everything.

But complaining doesn’t do much good either.

It’s easy to blame society, other people or outside circumstances for the problems we see around us.

It’s easy to blame others when we make mistakes.

The fact of the matter is there is no single group, no part of “society” that is to blame.

Even society as a whole cannot be blamed.

Instead, people need to accept responsibility at a personal level.

Look at individuals, in fact, look at yourself.

People complain but don’t act. People blame but never accept.

People claim credit for success and pass the buck for failures.

People make excuses for everything,but never admit their own inadequacies.

The problem that arises when people fail to take personal responsibility, is INACTION.

If you make a mistake or do something wrong, and make excuses for that mistake, then you’ll never learn from it.

After all, it wasn’t your fault you acted the way you did, so why should you do anything differently in the future?

People addicted to drugs think the government should spend huge amounts of money on rehabilitation programs,because they can’t be personally responsible for their decisions.

Granted, now that the problem exists, we have no choice but to Band-Aid them.

But think for a minute what would happen if all these individuals took responsibility for their own mistakes.

Teen pregnancies are extremely high, and our government is forced to spend millions of dollars in assistance.

I am not saying I think such dollars are misspent.

I’m simply saying if people were required to take more personal responsibility for their actions, they might think before acting in the way they do.

Jesse Ventura is a strong advocate of personal responsibility.

When asked what he would do for all the single pregnant mothers, Ventura replied casually, “Not a damn thing.”

Obviously, people were outraged by this reply, but think about the logic therein.

Why are taxpayers held responsible for people who refuse to be responsible for themselves?

I pay taxes, and I don’t want to be the one held responsible for others’ incompetence.

Even though this all may sound pessimistic, there is an equalizer.

Those who take responsibility for their actions succeed, while others fail.

By taking responsibility for our actions we can learn from our mistakes.

By learning from our mistakes we can become more responsible.

In the end, we will make better decisions in the future by learning from the mistakes in our past.

In order to learn, however, the first step is admitting mistakes.

Second, we must take responsibility for them.

If people can take the first two steps, then the third step will happen on its own. Making good decisions.

If people are held responsible for the consequences of their decisions, they are naturally going to do those things that are in their best interest.

And in turn, societies’ best interests.

People constantly complain about the problems in our country but never see their own part in contributing to these problems.

The government cannot force change in certain areas.

It must begin at the personal level.

We must take responsibility upon ourselves.

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Jonathan Miller is a senior in political science from Marion.