COLUMN: The bridge of responsibility

From Ned Nurick's, "Spare Change," Fall '97 From Ned Nurick's, "Spare Change," Fall '97The era of Big Government is over." "The end of welfare as we know it?" President Clinton said them both. Triangulation, vacillation, call it what you will. Clinton has tried to bridge the ideological war raging in America. Now, as we pause before crossing the wondrous, yet mythical bridge, we as Americans are faced with a crucial decision over the chasm of responsibility created by the absence of the New Deal crutch. New Dealers and neo-liberals will say you don't have the slightest idea how to cross a bridge, let alone be able to build one by yourself. They claim to be able to design a bridge and tell the government how to build one that will suit you best. Then and only with the assistance of case workers and career bureaucrats holding hands together can you take that first tentative step. The truth is, however, people know better than government. We can do it on our own. Heck, it is our God-given responsibility to pursue unbridled ambitions. In Monday's Wall Street Journal, columnist William Kristol, deplores the incrementalism that the Dick Morris-beguiled White House has engendered. Itsy-bitsy steps may win elections but substantive change they do not make. Unfortunately, the good folks inside the Beltway often miss the forest while trying to plant oaks and maples. No poll thus far has been able to signal to Billy Appleseed as to where our culture is shifting. So too has the mainstream media missed the pioneer grasses growing around them -- seedlings soon to mature into a new forest of thought. There is no forest according to the media unless there's a spotted owl trapped within a lumber forest on fire. In today's prosperous time we cannot abdicate our responsibility to affect and acknowledge change by waiting for the next crisis to play us. Entrenched ideologies represent the bad news. However, the better news remains the innovation and persistence of our generation and its grass roots forebearers. The forebearers seek personal responsibility and deferred gratification. They see government as neither wholly malignant nor wholly benign. But most of all, they recognize that government comes from the people, who must and do continue to reaffirm their commitment. Unfortunately, our opinion leaders, themselves residents of the Baby Boomer generation and beyond, grew up in an era where problems were not your problem but caused by someone else. In response to conflict Boomers sought radicalism and confrontation. Now it is our turn. We must be introspective and stand up to acknowledge our role and responsibility in society. The pioneers in personal responsibility -- though now on the fringe -- are bound to eventually seep influentially into the middle. As was the case of former Vice President Dan Quayle's condemnation of Murphy Brown, where Quayle was later vindicated by Clinton. Eventually the mainstream accepts changes innovated by perceived outsiders. But as John Cardinal Newmann said,"To be perfect is to change often." Presently, one group, Promise Keepers, stands above the fray. Begun as a grass roots organization by former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, Promise Keepers advocates the resumption of male personal responsibility within the family structure. In a reaction typical of its generation, the protest-inclined National Organization of Women became the first group to take off their bras in protest of a (gasp) male Christian organization. By borrowing a favored tactic of the media, NOW decided not to rebut the message but instead tried to inflict collateral damage to the messenger in hopes the message would crash and burn. NOW declared Promise Keepers guilty of nearly every offense short of sexual harassment. But to my habitual surprise, they missed the point. The cultural lynching resembled closely the treatment of Louis Farrakhan -- who I incidentally don't hold in the highest esteem but refuse to ignore his message that resonates so strongly among the black community -- also a proponent of personal responsibility. Both Promise Keepers and Farrakhan aim to increase young and middle-aged male participation and responsibility in an era fraught with children born out of wedlock who don't know their fathers. Perhaps the ever vigilant NOW could turn its guns, errr? flower power, toward that problem as well? But what is "personal responsibility" for us, the whatever generation? Basically, responsibility has changed from an ideal based upon placing blame on others or institutions to introspection where we become proactive. We have to admit we have only ourselves to blame. The previous generations have set up support structures making us less self-reliant and more dependent upon feel good, quick fixes for our woes. A professor does not arbitrarily throw out Bs as the first bid in grade hondling. On the contrary, we as students have the responsibility to consistently maintain work and study throughout the semester so we may be rewarded with a deserving grade. And finally, if you hate Penn and regret you came to this little haven of hope in West Philly, stop whining, take some responsibility and reject the previous generations' cop-outs. If there was something my seventh-grade social studies teacher Mr. Martin taught me, it was his favorite aphorism: "If you talk a good game, you gotta step to the plate and produce."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.