Accountability

There was one sure thing in the Newman household in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Newman Boys were held to one specific rule that was always in place and expected: Accountability. Whatever Alma told her two sons to do, they’d better do it. And if they disobeyed, there were always accountability measures implemented by their Mom, Alma. What were those accountability things?

When we boys were still young — 5 and 8 years old — the accountability meted by Alma was done with a simple house shoe. Alma could wield that weapon as effectively as a Roman Gladiator did his sword. And she used that house shoe often. And it was always effective.

When we had kids, they loved to visit Gran in Lafayette. During summer, our daughters would spend two or three weeks with her. They were terrorized by that same house shoe that kept me in step years earlier!

We did not pick up the house shoe mantra with our kids. In retrospect, maybe we should have. Why we didn’t do so is a mystery.

What was the magic of that shoe? It wasn’t painful when Gran used it. But it was THE dominating signal that disobedience would NOT be tolerated. And it quickly became the face of Accountability when it was introduced.

That entire Accountability process has disappeared in our nation. Two or three generations of kids have now become adults, most of whom missed the Gran house shoe in their homes growing up. In today’s America, the lack of accountability is obvious as we watch it play out on the national stage. It’s so obvious — and it’s so dangerous.

I recently did a personal examination of the role Accountability played in my life and that of our children. I came to one conclusion: Accountability has been a pillar in the foundation of American society and culture. Sadly, though, we are living in an atmosphere without Accountability in most cases. We live in an atmosphere of “anything goes” and “fly by the seat of your pants” philosophy.

We’re missing a lot. And that’s our problem.

In recent research, it dawned on me that many Americans don’t know about or understand how critical Accountability is to humans. Why is that? I don’t know. If it’s purposeful, shame on whoever made that decision. However, I’m certain it just slipped from our families as we all became busier and busier, and our lives were chaotic. We don’t have time to consider the values our forefathers embraced. Subsequently, there are at least three generations of Americans who do NOT use Accountability.

Can we break it down so we can understand its structure and what it can do? Yes!

Accountability Types

This is simple. There are three types of Accountability: personal, social, and legal (or governmental). I know that may seem simple. But, believe me, it’s not simple. Let’s break this down:

Personal. This is the simplest type of accountability, but it may be the most important. Accountability begins and ends with us. Personal Accountability must be taught and received before it can be successful. It begins in the home.

Parents, caretakers, teachers, and coaches are the principals in instilling Accountability in children. From toddlers to teenagers, NO ONE can credibly maintain that these are NOT the absolutes in implementing the understanding and importance of accepting Accountability. It seldom is happily received. But it is an absolute for any of us to first receive and implement in our lives. Without these people in our lives, seldom is Accountability adopted at any age.

Much of the criminality we are fearfully watching escalate across the nation happens in large part because of the lack of Accountability in those who commit crimes. Most of these people do NOT have the undergirding of parents, teachers, and coaches. A strong foundation is necessary to learn Accountability.

Unfortunately, we often see teenagers and young adults getting caught in criminal acts of every kind. Not all of these involved can point to the lack of senior peer accountability while younger, but more than 90% of those charged with criminal acts can point to this as their prime cause. Children raised in a home with no father escalate the numbers of those in this category.

The growth of the poverty-ridden family today is linked directly with the growth of the family headed by the always-single mother. Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present have a poverty rate of 45.8 percent, over four times the rate of children in married-couple families (9.5 percent). This modern form of family disintegration – or more accurately non-formation – has consequences for criminal behavior. The growth in crime is paralleled by the growth in families abandoned by fathers.

States with a lower percentage of single-parent families, on average, will have lower rates of juvenile crime. State-by-state analysis indicates that, in general, a 10 percent increase in the number of children living in single-parent homes (including divorces) accompanies a 17 percent increase in juvenile crime. On the contrary, children of intact married families are the least likely to engage in serious violent delinquency compared to children of single-mother, single-father, and mother-stepfather families.

Social. How do your kids get along with others? Here’s a bigger question: how do YOU get along with others? Make no mistake: social interactions with all those in our lives outside our homes are critical to the growth of personal acceptance of Accountability.

Whether at school with interactions with fellow students, teachers, advisors, and coaches or getting along with those with whom we react in social groups, Accountability for our actions in these circumstances is a must. In groups of every kind: like neighbors, fellow church or synagogue attenders, social groups, and even those in school activities outside of school, we must know how and adopt Accountability and lead others toward that same goal.

The rash of school shootings, shootings at shopping malls, churches, and other social places are fueled by shooters that have NOT adopted Accountability. No credible person can deny today’s violence comes primarily because of individuals with histories of the lack of Accountability.

One definition of personal Accountability is taking responsibility for your behavior and taking action to repair the harm. Accountability in young people takes different forms than only in the traditional juvenile justice system. Accountability in most juvenile justice systems is interpreted as punishment or adherence to a set of rules laid down by the system. However, neither being punished nor following a set of rules involves taking full responsibility for behavior or repairing the harm caused. Punishment and adherence to rules do not facilitate moral development at a level achieved by taking full responsibility for behavior.

Taking full responsibility for behavior requires:

• Understanding how that behavior affected other people (not just the courts or officials).
• Acknowledging that the behavior resulted from a choice that could have been made differently.
• Acknowledging to all affected that the behavior was harmful to others.
• Taking action to repair the harm where possible.
• Making changes necessary to avoid such behavior in the future.

In this model, accountability goals are often met through the process as much as through actions decided by the process. To be accountable for behavior is to answer to individuals affected by the behavior. Face-to-face meetings with community members or victims in which an offender takes responsibility and hears about the impact on others constitute significant forms of accountability.

To fully acknowledge responsibility for harm to others is a painful experience. It is, however, a process that opens up the opportunity for personal growth that may reduce the likelihood of repeating the harmful behavior. It is difficult to accept full responsibility for harming others without a support system and a sense that there will be an opportunity to gain acceptance in the community. Therefore, Accountability and support must go hand in hand.

Legal or Governmental.

Let’s first discuss Legal or Law Enforcement Accountability.

Little or NO such accountability has made its way through our nation over the last two decades. Experts struggle to find agreement on why it is so prevalent compared to the last century. No matter where one chooses to place blame, it is getting worse, is taking lives, and is growing in volume and intensity. We MUST find answers!

Principally, we see the lack of Accountability exposed in violent crime: anti-police attacks, gang violence, police brutality, domestic battery, and major theft. But those are only a few likely scenarios in which it flourishes. Over and over, we see spikes in police violence that take lives needlessly. These acts that happen across the nation are rare, but they still exist. And Accountability for those in law enforcement is MANDATORY! Unless “We the People” demand that rule of law be executed in every such case, these mentioned types of violence will only continue and become more deadly and happen more often.

There have been numerous law enforcement accountability programs put in place in law enforcement agencies across the nation. Some work — some don’t. The principal cause for the instances in which law enforcement Accountability fails is simple: there is the lack of enforcement of laws and rules in place. And doing so without Accountability measures being implemented consistently will fail. Unless that happens, those guilty parties cannot and will not be turned around. Unless and until they recognize this problem, accept that they are part of it, and choose to rectify it themselves, there is little or no hope for effective and consistent law enforcement Accountability. Without it, serious and violent crime will continue to rise to epic levels.

Secondly, let’s examine Political (Government) Accountability.

Every American sees it happening daily: a Congressman gets caught in insider trading; someone bribes a sheriff to drop charges against a party guilty of a heinous crime; a federal judge chooses to turn a blind eye to a case before the court to secure a promised appointment to a higher court; politicians illegally raid their own campaign funds to use campaign dollars for themselves. The most dominant example of NO political Accountability is at our Southern Border.

Let’s just be blunt: anyone who enters our country from either an adjoining border nation or by sea without having an official invitation to do so is breaking federal immigration law when doing so. And the Biden Administration and those charged to “protect and defend the Constitution and the laws it contains” are guilty of breaking those same immigration laws and other laws.

Consider the currently elected U.S. President, Joe Biden. He is immersed in that illegal conundrum with his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Both men — one elected and one Senate-confirmed — are also guilty of suborning the illegal acts of millions of illegal aliens entering —  and several million staying — in the U.S. This is ALL illegal!

How should these cases be resolved? This is the simplest example of the lack of Accountability and how to hold those who break these criminal laws Accountable: they must be arrested and charged with multiple federal law violations and then be tried in a federal court.

To quote former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “No one is above the law — not even the President.”

Summary

Going back to the beginning, in many cases, is an impossible task to undertake. But what MUST happen today is a U-turn by all in this nation to the spot where we let the Ship America turn away from the Rule of Law and Accountability to warmly embrace lawlessness and the thumbing of noses by many in Law Enforcement and Politics. There’s no other way to begin to fix this mess.

Think about it: today, hardcore criminals who have committed hardcore crimes are being released from prison for their crimes only to show back up in a week or two as “repeat offenders” because a Soros-funded judge pulls the trigger. In most such cases, major alleged crimes are dropped, and those illegal alien perpetrators are released.

That process lights the fire of criminality in the hearts of millions of those already walking as illegals. It only strengthens the guilty while scaring the helpless. But it’s happening daily.  And more and more people are having their lives dramatically altered through no fault of their own.