Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Our Virtue As a Nation Is a Collective Virtue

What I do is nobody’s business. What I do is everybody's business. I am only responsible for the consequences of my actions. Everybody is responsible for the consequences of my actions. These are all true statements. We have had no dictator in the United States, not because as a people we have no individuals capable of acting as dictators. We do. Pick any reprehensible person in a foreign country or from any period of time and we have people among us who are capable of acting the same.

Our virtue is a collective virtue. We have no individuals who have been dictators in the United States because we as a people have determined that it is our collective responsibility that no individual be allowed to act as a dictator over us. It is through this virtue that the many who are capable of such degradation are rescued from their own worst natures.

We have had numerous individuals here rise up from among all socioeconomic groups to love, teach and lead us, not because we as a people have a greater number of such individuals capable of doing great things. We do not. Pick the best and brightest of any foreign country and on an individual basis, they have those who are capable of achieving every advancement in knowledge and skill that individuals have achieved in this nation.

Our virtue is a collective virtue. We have individuals who rise up from among us to endow us with greatness because we as a people have determined that it is our collective responsibility that all individuals have available to them the opportunity to develop their full potential. It is through this virtue that many are rescued from the confines of their own circumstances.

It is not in the absence of government nor through its fullest manifestation that the balance of prevention and propagation are found. Take any current problem facing our nation- obesity, rising health care costs, drunk driving, gun violence, falling academic achievement, environmental degradation, deficit spending, etc. and when they become both a collective and an individual responsibility–they will be resolved.
Loren M. Lambert © October 26, 2015

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