At what point, in our country, did we stop expecting that there would be consequences to our actions? I'd love to know what year and what events had a whole generation of people just decide that they should be able to do whatever they want and everyone should just accept it. I'm definitely a firm believer in freedom and choices. With that being said, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Here are my feelings on the topic.....
Everyone should have choices and the freedom to make their choices From the richest to the poorest people in our country, everyone has a choice. Of course the choices are vastly different but there are choices available to everyone. The great thing about our country is the freedom to make those choices. You can choose what kind of car you want to buy or house you want to live in and then work towards those goals. You can choose whether or not to send your kids to traditional school, Montessori, homeschool, unschool....a lot of options. You can choose what you want to study and whether you want to go to a university, a trade school, school online....again, a lot of options. I think that a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate the freedom they have in this country.
The choices you make HAVE consequences Some of these consequences are short term and some are more far-reaching but there ARE consequences to your choices/actions. It's the reality of life. Some of the consequences are great and some are horrible. The fact is that they DO exist.
No one is exempt. The great debate right now is the vaccination debate; therefore, I'll use that as an example. If you choose to vaccinate, there are consequences. Short term, you have a pinch in your arm (or leg). Short term, you may spike a fever. Longer term, you may have a reaction to the vaccine. Even LONGER term, you have immunity to the disease you were vaccinated against. Some of the consequences are good, some are bad but they all exist.
If you choose NOT to vaccinate, there are consequences. Short term, you will have people question you constantly on your choice. Longer term, you may have to explain yourself to schools and be denied access to some doctors that don't want to put their patients at risk. Even longer term, you may well contract the illness. Longer than that, you may potentially pass this disease onto a lot of people, including immune-deficient people that CAN'T get vaccinated; your choice may kill them. Again, some of the consequences aren't that bad...and some are devastating and far-reaching. The fact is that no one is exempt from consequences.
You don't get to tell other people what they NEED to decide Returning to the vaccine debate, I chose to vaccinate. It is not my right to tell someone else that they have to vaccinate. It IS my choice, however, to say that my (hypothetical) newborn is not allowed to have interaction with your unvaccinated child. You can quote a million statistics on either decide of the debate and that's fine. Debate is good. In fact, it's healthy. With that being said, there is a vast difference between debate and downright rudeness.
and finally.....
Government involvement and demands are NOT the answer I'm sorry but I firmly believe that MORE government involvement is not the answer. It's one thing for the government to step up and offer an option to help someone. It is a starkly different thing for the government to mandate people to do something they should have the freedom to decide. Freedom is what makes our country great....letting the government take all of that freedom away is giving away the choices you now have.
No comments:
Post a Comment