FWIW #26 Responsibility and Choice

Isn’t it a crime in and of itself that innocent and hardworking families have to suffer because leaders at all levels fail to take responsibility for their actions? Why is this? From the highest levels of political leadership, the mantra is “It’s not my fault.”

President Biden fails to take responsibility for his actions creating the energy crisis and immigration crisis we are going through.

Secretary Yellen and Fed Chair Powell fail to take responsibility for deliberate inflationary monetary policies destroying the purchasing power of lower- and middle-class Americans. They both know that the Fed and the Biden administration deliberately ignited the inflation gripping the country and continue to do so as they allow the real interest rate (rates after subtracting inflation) to remain negative. She says she was wrong last year when she claimed inflation was short-lived, and the Fed and Treasury had the tools to stop it. Powell said they could control inflation. Really? Did they lose all their experience and knowledge gained over decades? Do they have dementia causing them to forget the basic principles of economics?

District attorneys fail to take responsibility for crime riddling their communities, as they decline to prosecute the criminals. They blame rich billionaires for voters firing them from their jobs.

Mean, evil human beings and their apologists fail to accept responsibility for slaughtering innocent people in a cold, calculating way by blaming it on mental illness and a lack of social programs.

Police officers, who fail to take responsibility for their lack of courage, blame communication problems and a lack of the right equipment for their decision to stand by while innocents die.

Local and state officials who espouse gun control on a national level, while their states and cities have stringent gun laws, fail to take responsibility for not enforcing the laws already available to law enforcement in their communities.

Community leaders in neighborhoods experiencing the criminal surge in gun violence and other serious crimes demand help, but they fail to take responsibility to assist in identifying the criminals living next to them.

All these failures to take responsibility for their actions are deliberate choices made by the individuals.

President Biden knows he could, by executive order, remove the impediments on oil and gas production he placed through his original executive orders and regulatory actions. Reversing every barrier erected since he took office would lower the price of oil by tens of dollars per barrel. He chooses not to.

Secretary Yellen and Fed Chair Powell could take actions today to slow and ultimately reverse the high inflation they created. Doing so would hurt speculators and incompetent businesses that are operating today because of the free money these two officials have fostered for too long. They are choosing to keep inflation higher than necessary for political purposes. One of the top five fantasies coming from Washington is the story about the Fed’s political independence.

A substantial number of district attorneys elected in communities around the country have chosen not to prosecute criminals who break the law because they believe there are too many criminals in jail, and the criminals can’t be blamed for their actions because they had a difficult childhood. These DAs are choosing to ignore the laws they were sworn to uphold. This choice puts the blood of the innocents killed every weekend on their hands.

Only an illogical apologist believes that a person who chooses to gather lethal items, puts them in his truck, and drives hundreds of miles to kill innocent people he doesn’t know is mentally ill. Everything the evil person did was deliberate and thought out. He knew what he was doing. The tragedy of that day was extended because he was allowed to surrender. Blaming the shooting of children and their teachers on mental illness is a crime in itself. That mean, evil individual knew what he was doing and made the choice to do it. Listen to the testimonies of the children in the rooms. The killer systematically went around shooting these innocents, not in a rage, but in a cold, calculating manner. At least he paid a small price for his deeds by dying himself.

Looking back at Columbine, Parkland, and Uvalde, we see that glaring choices were made on those tragic days. First, mean, evil individuals chose to spew their hate on innocents. Second, school officials chose to spend money elsewhere than on security, and their choices must live with them the rest of their lives. Third, law enforcement made deliberate choices not to intercede quickly. In all three instances, no one knows how many of the innocent victims could have been saved, but instead bled out and died while law enforcement chose not to do the job they were paid and trained for.

Many of the large cities in America have stringent gun laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of ordinary citizens. These same cities have shootings every weekend that rival the ones we wring our hands over as they happen at schools and churches. The political and law enforcement leaders of these cities choose to ignore the rampant crime caused by their willingness to turn a blind eye to criminals with guns. These leaders choose to pass off the crime as “drug related,” as if that explanation justifies their choice to not act responsibly.

Neighborhood residents living with gun violence, drug dealing, and other felony crime choose not to help law enforcement identify the criminals and not to help convict them.

What the country needs is for leadership to take responsibility for their actions. If they did, their choices may be better and address the problems facing the country.

Finally. much is discussed about guns, with the president of the United States showing his ignorance of the Constitution and the Second Amendment (2A) every time he opens his mouth. The 2A was not inserted in the Constitution so the colonists could go hunting or have shooting contests. The “weapon of war,” to quote the president, in the eighteenth century was the musket of that day. The British Army had them and used them effectively against the colonists. The British, and at other times the French, sold them to the Indians when it was in their best interest to arm an ally to fight the colonists. Someone should tell the president that the 2A was written specifically to make sure the colonists and future American citizens would be able to fight tyranny when it raised its ugly head. Look at the original first eight amendments to the Constitution, and it is clear the colonists were protecting themselves from future governments intent on taking away their freedoms.

If the political leadership in this country wanted to see the law-abiding American citizen choose to get behind some form of gun control, they would choose to take action to stop the rampant gun warfare killing innocents and children in the urban centers, demonstrating they can put a stop to it and protect citizens at all economic levels. They choose not to. Why do they make this choice? Until they take responsibility for their lack of action, it is blaringly evident political leadership wants to disarm the law-abiding citizen while allowing criminals to have weapons and prey upon the innocent and children.

Finally, the news media report nightly on another caravan of 15,000 people moving through Mexico toward the southern US border. The progressive socialists say the caravan is 70% women and children, which is an appeal to the humanistic side of this country. What they choose not to say is that 30%, more than 4,500, are young men of military age. They don’t say where these men are from because no officials or media choose to find out. Some leaked reports say more than 100 countries are represented in this ongoing illegal immigration. It’s estimated that more than two million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Biden took office. No one knows how many of them are military-age men. Why don’t they? Americans who choose to own a gun had better keep them handy. If you doubt the value of this suggestion, go back and read the history of the Philippines for the four years before WWII and find out what happened when the war reached their shores. You should choose to be alert.