Posted on by Californiacontrarian

A Rhetorical Question – I

Perhaps a rhetorical question … perhaps not … “Should those in authority be responsible for the outcomes of their actions?” Now here I am not necessarily talking about legal responsibility, but rather moral responsibility for what that is worth in today’s environment. Accepting responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions often would not be easy. It would require fortitude, and I do not think that most individuals who are in positions of authority have that sort of mental or emotional strength. Note that I am not just talking about politicians, but rather anyone who is in a position of authority. 

For instance, Pete Arredondo, the law enforcement official state police said was most responsible for a flawed response to the Uvalde elementary school shooting in May, has resigned from the Uvalde City Council. He was quoted as saying, “it’s the right thing to do.”

“After much consideration, it is in the best interest of the community to step down as a member of the City Council for District 3 to minimize further distractions,” Arredondo wrote in the letter. “The Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff must continue to move forward to unite our community, once again. God bless Uvalde.”

Whether his decisions at Robb Elementary School on that fateful day were right or wrong, he has taken responsibility for them. To my way of thinking, he has done the right thing by resigning.

In a different vein, as most schools across the country are back to in-person learning, the detrimental effects of school lockdowns during coronavirus are showing themselves in real time: high levels of student depression and developmental and academic stunting.

“Kids have the highest level of anxiety I’ve ever seen: anxiety about basic safety and fear of what could happen,” Colorado elementary school counselor Susan Julien told the New York Times, which conducted a survey of 362 school counselors nationwide.

Children appear to have taken the brunt of the suffering from draconian lockdown measures and mask mandates in schools, many of which were unnecessary and ineffectual at stopping the spread of the coronavirus but were devastating to the personal development of America’s children.

Counselors “described many students as frozen, socially and emotionally, at the age they were when the pandemic started,” according to the Times.

Have any of those who are responsible for these horrific outcomes stepped up and admitted that they made the wrong decisions? Have any of those in authority resigned or even publicly spoken out about what is now happening to children as a consequence of their decisions? Here I am specifically speaking pointedly to governors and the heads of teacher’s unions. Their silence is deafening, but probably not surprising as most realize that there is no need to answer the non-rhetorical question, “Do either of these two groups in authority have any moral scruples?”

7/22/22

californiacontrarian

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