Freedom and responsibility

TB should stand for 'too bad' for this guy. He sounds like a child caught in the act, defending himself: "But you didn't say I couldn't go to my friend's house." Even as I hear myself saying "the guy should be a lawyer", actually, he shouldn't. I wouldn't want to hire someone who tries to squirm his way out of responsibility. (DOH! He is a lawyer. Quelle surprise!)

Tuberculosis (one of my spelling words that I aced in 5th grade) is a serious disease. I don't care if he wasn't considered contagious. You don't go off on your honeymoon with TB! How romantic is that! The words in sickness and in health do not mean infecting your beloved right after the wedding. Just because no one told him to stay home doesn't mean that he is not responsible for his actions. There is a "lump three feet above [our asses]" (name the movie, Andy) that we're supposed to use to make decisions, as in, "I have TB, a deadly disease. I have a new wife. Should I make her happy or should I make her sick? Hmm."

In a related story, as I was traveling home from Mexico, I spoke with a seatmate who was well-travelled. He spoke of being in Spain once, on a occasion when a friend of his was drunk and unable to walk home. A local constable took notice of his inebriated state, ascertained where he lived, walked him to his door, unlocked it for him, helped him inside, then locked him in his apartment to sleep it off. My seatmate thought this was a bit too much and was thankful that he lived in a free country.

Yes, we are free to get drunk, get into our cars, and drive, possibly hit someone, kill them, and then face the music for our behavior. Frankly, I like the proactive, compassionate approach given above.

I am very weary of the increasingly American behavior of lifting up virtues, such as freedom, autonomy, faith, life, waving them around like a flag, absent of their corresponding sister virtues: responsibility, covenant, reason, and love. Some guy in an old book said it much more eloquently than I, that if we have not love, we have nothing. If we do not have reason, we have fanaticism. If we do not have covenant, we have everyone for themselves. If we do not have responsibility, well, just take a look at how we live versus most of the earth's inhabitants. We call this freedom and are very proud of it, thank you very much. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is watching us, breathing threats and murder, and we cry foul.

Enough, I say! Enough!