Who, me? I didn’t do it

Who’s responsible?

It’s a simple enough, two-word question, but one of those words has fallen from favor. In fact, it currently has virtually no meaning.

The truth is, today, no one is responsible.

No one is ever guilty.

No one ever takes responsibility for something they did, or neglected to do, or did incorrectly, or caused something untoward or … or … or.

Everything is someone else’s fault. It’s their-his-her responsibility. Not mine. Never mine.

When did it change? At what point did it become de rigueur to always point index fingers in opposite directions when the question is: Who did it?

Who me? Nah. They did it.

The knee-jerk reaction is to point at someone else and never, ever to point at oneself.

Screw up your life? Mom’s fault.

Flunk out of school? Poverty.

Commit a crime? Tough childhood.

Wrecked your marriage? Childhood sex abuse by a relative.

Alcoholic? It’s a disease.

And don’t forget: Can’t turn your homework in? The dog ate it.

It’s good for a laugh, sometimes. But when it becomes, as it has, routine, you know that we’ve not only slid down that slippery slope, we’re piled at the bottom with no clear way to make our way back up.

Remember the young American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003? Rachel Corrie tried to block demolition of Palestinian homes. The investigation showed it was an accident; she was hit by chunk of concrete; the dozer driver didn’t see her.

Despite that, her parents sued the Israeli government and the manufacturer of the bulldozer, Caterpillar Inc. The complaint makes the allegations that the company was a party to “war crimes; aiding and abetting extra-judicial killing; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; wrongful death; and negligence.”

Clearly, the family saw no “responsibility” on the part of Corrie. In fact, Jen Nessel, a spokeswoman for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which helped file the suit, said a civil suit is the only way the family can get some “accountability.”

Read that: Everyone else is responsible for the incident except for the woman at the heart of it, who clearly put herself in a dangerous situation.

It seems to me that anyone who stands in front of big equipment is tempting fate.

You can laugh at lawsuits like these, but remember the woman who sued over the spilled hot coffee and the pending lawsuits about fast-food makers causing people to be fat.

It isn’t funny when you consider court costs and clogged calendars, legal fees, and the fact that if the company loses the suit – or settles to get it out of the way – we all pay. Ultimately, higher prices are paid by everyone just to satisfy the need to find someone to blame.

Take it even further. Look at New Orleans. From the moment the hurricane hit and when the damage became evident, as well as the failures of the city, parish and state, the only thing we saw (and continue to see) are the fingers pointing at everyone else.

If nothing else is clear about the hurricane disaster, what is evident is the across-the-board failure of the elected representatives in New Orleans and Louisiana to have properly prepared for the aftermath and carried out a disaster plan.

They may have had a plan, but it never got implemented and the caterwauling was aimed at Washington: President Bush and the federal government and federal officials in charge of FEMA.

They should have known, they should have been prepared, they should have moved faster, they should … they should … they should.

Notice the consistent word: they.

What about “we”? With all the accusations, have you heard anyone from Louisiana admit they did something wrong? Of course not. The scenario is blame. Never responsibility.

Well, what about responsibility and in fact, what about the responsibility of the people in New Orleans? They knew flooding was possible. They knew the levees might break. They knew the storm was coming.

Too many didn’t leave, and it’s a specious argument to use the excuse of “poverty.” People may be poor, but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. To lump all poor people into a mass of ignorance and stupidity is not only incorrect, it’s insulting.

But it’s done. The elected officials in Louisiana do it in the way they reacted to the disaster. The media, by its focus on the poor, reinforce the very stereotype they claim to abhor. It’s another example of their hypocrisy.

Somewhere in all this, the issue of responsibility must also be put on the backs of the residents of that city. First, they had the responsibility to elect competent officials and to make certain they did their job. They didn’t. The Big Easy mentality allowed the corruption and ineptitude to multiply.

But they also had the obligation to have their own disaster plan – as do we all for whatever disaster might likely hit us in our own area of the country – hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, eruptions, fire, etc. You can’t prevent disaster, but you can have your own survival plan to help your family until outside assistance reaches you.

If we excuse people from that, then we find ourselves in a situation where we expect total, nanny-government control. We find ourselves expecting there to be a law or a bureaucracy ready and waiting to protect and save us from every possible harm – from hot coffee to bulldozers to hurricanes.

Marx and Stalin must be smiling.