Someone's liable...

Yesterday, I was listening to the Joe & Patti Show on KGMI. They were discussing the legal case of an injured firefighter whose court-award of $12million was challenged when he was investigated and found to be physically capable of much more than his original complaint claimed. Despite the video footage and photographs that showed him playing bocce & horse shoes, and even dancing, his award was re-instated.


A caller defended this guy saying that you can’t see all the consequences of the original injuries, so it’s not fair to judge. Someone may be disabled and not look that way...Besides, the caller stated, “SOMEONE is liable...”

Apparently, that’s a given. When something bad happens, SOMEONE is liable.

In this case, the firefighter was injured when he got up to use the restroom one night in a firehouse he was not familiar with. In the dark, he chose the wrong door, and stepped off into the hole for the fire pole down to the first floor. He suffered a head injury, 10 broken ribs and worse, if you can imagine that.

This just stuck in my craw, and I don’t mean the specifics of this case. You can argue about what this guy did or didn’t do, and whether he should have the money but that’s not what’s bugging me. I’m sorry that this guy suffered such severe consequences from an unfortunate mistake, but what about personal responsibility? No one shoved him over the edge. Why isn’t HE the one responsible? Why is SOMEONE (read: ELSE) liable? Why is this the immediate response?

There seems to be the attitude that because this firefighter has lost something, someone must make it up to him. It’s a general attitude these days, I fear. If I have less than you, someone should make it up to me...and most likely you. Or the government should...Or those rich, uncaring corporations...

People want to dissociate merit, or effort, or the lack thereof, with outcomes. They want us to think that we’re all the same, and deserve the same. We are all made in the image of God, and deserve the same respect, and the same opportunities – but we do not have all the same motivations, nor do we all deserve the same kind of outcomes. And sometimes we make bad, maybe even stupid, mistakes, that set us far back from where we want to be...

If you take the time to think about it, you recognize that while we all want security and happiness, no one defines them in the same way. As we persist in the pursuit of equal outcomes for all, we restrict our ability to freely pursue that which is our own unique definition of security and happiness. I may have to settle for yours, you may have to settle for mine, or worse, we both have to settle for the government’s definition of these.

So much is wasted by encouraging people to wait around for others to make up what they lack, when, all the time, opportunity and freedom are right there for us to grab hold of in pursuit of our unique dream of security and happiness.

This is America, people! -- the place where initiative, creativity and hard work allow us to take our talents to undetermined heights! Why are we ceding our dreams to wait for equal footing? We’ll never get it and we don’t even need it.

It’s time we stopped whining for equal outcomes, and grabbed the equal opportunities that already exist.

If someone is liable for what you lack, most likely that someone is YOU.