Accountability 101

Where has all the accountability gone? When I was a kid, I did stuff. And when it was bad stuff, my parents held me accountable. One of my favorite things to do in the winter, was to climb up on our roof, and huck snowballs at the passing cars. As it was, it was harmless enough. I didn't pack rocks in the middle of them, I didn't use ice chunks, and my aim and distance were bad enough that if the offending orb of packed snow crystals did make it in the vicinity of a passing car, it usually splattered harmlessly on the pavement behind, with the faint wisp of tailpipe emissions hovering over the once proud snowball saying, "Haha, you missed." Usually.

Until one day my trajectory and sheer human strength came together as one and exploded on the windshield of an unsuspecting motorist. "Yes!!" I must've shrieked triumphantly. I don't remember exactly what I shrieked. But I do remember the joy lasting about a second and a half, as the guy slammed on the brakes, backed up the car, and got out. I did what any kid would do in that situation: I hid behind the chimney. "You don't think I see you up there?" he hollered. What was he going to do? Climb my roof? Worse. He rang the doorbell and ratted me out. To this day, I have the very distinct memory of my father coming home from work that night, dragging me down the block to the guys house, and watching smugly from the sidewalk as I sheepishly rang this guys doorbell and apologized. But the lesson stuck. I believe, as do most people, that you should be held accountable for your actions.

Fast forward to this morning, reading about some kid shot to death, lying on the front stoop of some guys house he intended to rob. He and 2 buddies tried to force their way into this persons house. They had a gun with them. They meant business. But a funny thing happened next: so did the guy inside. And when the thugs tried to break into his door, he shot one of them. So there the dead guy lay, with a gun still in his hand. And the poor kids mother, now faced with the grief of losing her son had this to say: “He wasn’t in no home invasion.” Really. A convicted felon's corpse is lying on the pavement of someone else's house, with a gun in his hand, shot by the home owner. There were multiple witnesses. And I ask, where is the accountability?

Rewind exactly one day. A group of parishioners are banded together on the steps of their church in unity over the recent spate of killings in Chicago. Now I don't know how many of you out there care, or know, but as far as murders go, this year has been bad in Chicago. Really bad. Let me quote a few of them here. “I wish the violence would stop because they’re taking away our loved ones and it is horrible.” And, “We’re tired of our children being killed, we’re tired of our children being gunned down." The first quote says "...they’re taking away our loved ones." Who are "they"? The second quote says "...our children being killed..." The answer is right in front of them. "They" are "our children". They grow up with no discipline, no fear, and no accountability. The parents, though faced with the enormous challenge of raising a child in the killing fields of northern Illinois, are failing in their job to raise honest, law abiding citizens. These kids need someone to show them the right way to be a human being. But if the parents won't hold themselves accountable, what chance do the poor kids have?