Personal accountability -- was Re: unnamed prior subject <g>

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

Lif said:
>No - things like this require people to use the brains they were born with, 
>the information they are presented with, to make their own choices and then 
>take *responsibility* for them.  When people substitute rules for their own 
>personal choices, then the next step all too often is the notion that 
>if  someone else is in charge, then "it's not my fault".  After that comes 
>the lawsuit.
>
>When there aren't rules to break, then there's no one to blame for poor 
>choices other than oneself.
>
>No thanks.  No new rules needed at all.
>

Nicely put, Lif.  

It's all about *education*...teach people, in a non-judgemental way, all of
the different aspect that you can think of...then let them make their own
decisions.  There is a diminishing personal accountability trend going on
in our society and, while it's a devastating phenomena for the world in
general, it's padding the pocketbooks of some lawyers, who will take on
damn near any lawsuit to make a buck.  Something happens, followed by a
lawsuit (to pay the bills), which is followed by the sued party making a
rule to prevent a further occurrence...even tho the origin was a personal
decision.  On the flip side, tho, I've seen an institution ignore a
recurrent problem and making some of us edgy since we knew that they
wouldn't do anything about the problem until a catastrophe happened and
someone had some awful outcome or died.  It's a tough line when personal
accountability is hoped for but not seen.

For the sport of endurance, education should be the first line of defense.
Since I've noticed that the greatest portion of the people involved are
truly eager to learn as much as possible, education and personal
accountability should be the direction first attempted...hopefully received
with an open mind and common sense...and acted on accordingly.

Sue
-------
Sue Brown
Tyee Farm
ARICP Certified Riding Instructor
Recreational Riding and Dressage
Marysville, Wa. 
sbrown@wamedes.com