Responsibility

Quality of the month for October

The dictionary definitions of responsibility can help us get started. Most of them begin like this: "The quality or state of being responsible." This leads us to consider what "responsible" means, and here we find several useful definitions:

"Able to respond or answer for one's conduct and obligation....having the character of a free moral agent: capable of determining one's own acts; able to distinguish between right and wrong and to think and act rationally, and hence accountable for one's behavior."

Here is how responsibility has been viewed by a wide variety of other people:

	William Butler Yeats:		"In dreams begins responsibility."
	John D. Rockefeller, Jr.:		"I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty."
	Harry S. Truman:		"The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world."
	Cain:		"Am I my brother's keeper?"
	The Dalai Lama:		"Today more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life."
	Ralph Waldo Emerson:		"Let every man shovel out his own snow and the whole city will be passable."
	I Peter 4:10:		"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others."
	C. Everett Koop:		"Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation."
	Booker T. Washington:		"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him."
	Abigail Van Buren:		"If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders."
	John M. Templeton:		"If you hope to accomplish great things, you must begin by accepting responsibility for the smaller things facing you today."
	John W. Gardner:		"We don't need leaders to tell us what to do. That's not the American style of leadership in any case. We do need men and women in every community in the land who will accept a special responsibility to advance the public interest, root out corruption, combat injustice and care about the continued vitality of this land.... We need them to symbolize and voice and confirm the most deeply rooted values of our society. We need them to tell us of our faithfulness or infidelity to those values."
	Roberto C. Goizueta:		"While we were once perceived as simply providing services, selling products and employing people, business now shares in much of the responsibility for our global quality of life. Successful companies will handle this heightened sense of responsibility quite naturally, if not always immediately. I say this not because successful business leaders are altruistic at heart. I can assure you, many are not. I say it because they will demand that their companies remain intensely focused on the needs of their customers and consumers."
	Stephen R. Covey:		"Remember: Responseability is the ability to choose our response to any circumstance or condition. When we are response-able, our commitment becomes more powerful than our moods or circumstances, and we keep the promises and resolutions we make. For example, if we put mind over mattress and arise early in the morning, we will earn our first victory of the day – the daily private victory – and gain a certain sense of self-mastery. We can then move on to more public victories. And as we deal with each new challenge, we unleash within ourselves a fresh capacity to soar to new heights."

Here is how a graduating senior from a Worthington high school explained it:

"Responsibility says to me that one is dedicated, honest, caring, and aware of his duties to himself and those around him. I am responsible. I am a hard working individual who sets goals with the intention of challenging myself and completing them....I take pride in caring for those around me, whether at school and helping a peer to excel in a subject, to babysitting and keeping a watchful eye on my charges while keeping them occupied and having fun, to my own family and lending a helping hand for one another. I am aware of what my teachers and peers expect from me, and what my family and community expect as well. I complete tasks on time and often go beyond the call of duty to satisfy myself. I strive to be my very best."

An older person in Worthington described another graduating senior this way:

"M. has demonstrated his sense of responsibility in many actions and activities. As a friend he has been supportive and loyal. He understands the importance of privacy and commitment within a friendship and respects the rights of others. Politeness stems from a responsibility to behave in social situations that require respect of other's opinions and social mores....M. learned the legislative process and has had exposure to state and federal government....He advocated the passage of the law related to teenage drivers in 1997 by writing letters, speaking to legislators, speaking to lobbyists, and engaging many of his colleagues and friends in discussion."

Here is how some people involved in Partners for Citizenship & Character have articulated their understanding of responsibility.

	Said the PCC Resources Work Team:		"The people who demonstrate responsibility consider the consequences of their action for themselves and for others, in order to make those consequences as positive as possible."
	Said one individual:		"To me, being a responsible person means making choices – good or bad – and being able to deal with the outcomes of those choices – good or bad."
	Said another:		"It means that I will pay attention to the ways that all my words and deeds bring hurt or pleasure to my spouse."

What does it mean for you to be a responsible person? What does it mean for your family to be a responsible family? Your institution to be a responsible institution? Your community to be a responsible community?