I first had an idea to write about the juxtaposition of rights and responsibilities back around the July 4^th holiday.  Like many of my ideas, it never made its way onto my computer.  But with the presidential election coming up, I thought it was worth touching on it.  Here’s my point:

Every right or freedom has an equal responsibility.

A lot of people focus on the power of freedom, and that’s all well and good.  But rarely do people focus on the responsibilities that are commensurate with that right.  In fact, that responsibility is inherent in the freedom.  The right to free speech carries with it the responsibility to respect the power of our speech.  The freedom of religion carries with it the responsibility to honor other people’s beliefs.  The right to vote requires the responsibility to be an informed voter.

You can’t have a right without the responsibility, it just doesn’t work, and I think that, in general, we have abdicated too much our personal responsibility in the decision-making in our country.  It’s challenging to trust our leadership, and the level of political discourse leads a lot to be desired (have you ever watched the Fox “news” channel – I shudder every time I flip past it).  We have a horde of pundits who want to tell us how to think and act.  We have stopped taking responsibility to what happens around us.

I’m not saying that you should be alarmed and start a political crusade for your favorite cause.  That often does more harm than good.  I think the first step to  taking responsibility is to become educated (and not just by watching the news on TV).  You can’t force others to be educated.  You can’t force others to act responsibly.  You can’t force others to make informed decisions.

But you can make sure that you do.

Start by reading the foundational documents, so when someone talks politics to you, you know what you’re talking about.  They are surprisingly quick reads: 

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution of The United States

And always remember – every right you exercise, every freedom you have, must be balanced be an equally important responsibility.  For us to demand that responsibility in others, we must first possess it ourselves.