Obligations and Responsibilities

We pay our rent or mortgage, mostly on time. We use and pay for utilities, again, mostly on time. We clean our homes with regularity (well, hopefully!), and we prepare meals two or three times a day, clean up the kitchen, wash the dishes, and move on to other things.

We follow a daily routine. Work or leisure (depending on employment or not, retirement, etc.) continues on some regular pattern. If something breaks we fix it, have it repaired, or toss it (or do without). If a problem arises in the family we try to do something about it, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Tasks, chores and…responsibilities? I define that as: a duty to perform.

What are the boundaries of these “duties to perform?” To what are they attached?

The sense of ‘obligation’ enters the discussion at this point. We have duties to perform because we have ~ or feel we have ~ an obligation to that which needs a duty performed. What might some of these be? Let’s build a partial list:

Voting; we have an obligation to vote because this is our democracy on every level (national, state, county, township and municipality)

• We have an obligation to vote with knowledge so we need to understand the issues we are asked to vote on
• If we have kids we have an obligation to raise them with intentionality; that requires us to know their needs, meet them as best we can, and be involved in their expanding world view. Education is a family affair, not just the schools.
• Elected officials must make decisions based on the relative priorities of the issues to one another, but they need to understand those issues clearly, and also need input from the electorate on what the priority order is; we must take a role in this
• We have an obligation to speak out when we don’t agree with decisions being made that affect us, or demean others, or make matters worse; we should understand the underlying issues better and then air our ideas; that’s basic to our very democracy
• We need to speak up when our institutions are failing us; these include government units as well as privately owned businesses and corporations
• We need to understand the Bible we spout from
• We need to understand the US Constitution before stating what we think it means
• We have an obligation to use our mind and body productively; don’t be afraid; engage in searching for meaning and understanding
• We have an obligation to reconcile our differences with others; it helps them and us be more fully human

Perhaps the core of the list is a sense of ‘owing’ to a broader world, as well as engagement with others to seek better understanding of the issues that affect us all. If we do that with openness and honesty, maybe we can create a dialogue that informs rather than beats down? Should we try this?

If we agree this means reading newspapers and asking them to inform rather than opine, to research and share the data with us, and to apply what we learn and know to the issues and events of the day so we better understand them. They will respond well if they know we are serious in our quest.

Do the same with your local units of government. You may have to focus your energy on one or two while others focus their attention on different ones.  I pay close attention to the City Council and the Park District Board. I wish others would take on the School Board, the County Board and perhaps the Library and Fire Districts.

What do we do with the state legislature and US Congress? Good question! What do we do with them? We could spend a lot of time on these two alone, and perhaps we will. Let’s let our discussion and blog take shape over time to see where we go with it. But clearly there is not much that is right with both the Illinois Legislature and US Congress. Both have much to be ashamed about. They seem giddily engaged in gridlock. I think they will continue in this manner until you and I convince them otherwise.

 
This is our community, our state, our region, our nation. We have an obligation to understand it and engage in actively monitoring and directing it. One voice may be weak, but millions have strength when working together. Somehow we need to do just that.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum precisely because it has simplicity and logic on its side. The message is clear. The Internet is being used constructively by those ‘occupiers’ and we need to do the same. Is the blog world part of that answer?

Time will tell. Check back here tomorrow to see what our next mini step in the quest will be.

October 17, 2011