Rights vs. Responsibility

"Responsibilities exceed rights."

     Fred Smith, Sr.

Fred Smith was a wise mentor of mine and many, many others. He had the foresight to make a video for those attending his memorial service to offer some parting words of wisdom. In this short video, Fred concisely and very profoundly touched on a few subjects, however, I want to focus on one in particular, Rights vs. Responsibility.

Fred stated that rights can become divisive, whereas responsibilities overlap and form bonds. In the years since Fred's home going in 2007, I have given much thought to Rights vs. Responsibilities. I now see more clearly and better appreciate the profound wisdom Fred conveyed.

If you were to give a departing message to those who came to celebrate your life, what would you say to them? Fred's video was a little under 10 minutes, and he had much to say.

Reflection on this quote helped me to see this topic as one each of us should really understand and do something about. I see this as a responsibility rather than a right that we have. According to Fred "Responsibility exceeds rights." This is a thought worthy of serious reflection/introspection and discussion.

Do you place rights before responsibility?

As a nation and the world, have we shifted away from responsibilities in favor of rights?

Do we believe that our rights trump our responsibilities?

Can the division among people and the moral decay that exists in today’s society be attributed to placing rights ahead of responsibility?

I postulate that our "rights" tend to imply a sense of entitlement or self-centeredness and are often based on perceptions. We seem to have become a nation and world that fights more for rights than our more important responsibilities. We have Civil Rights, Women Rights, Gay Rights, Religious Rights and on and on. As a point of clarification, I am not opposing rights, rather I believe they should never supersede responsibilities.

It seems at times, one stands so strongly on "rights" that any opposition or disagreement can bring to a point people refuse to communicate with those in opposition on any other matter, even commonalities, resulting in no dialogue or opportunity for improvement. Unfortunately we see this scenario playing out every where, even in the highest levels of government.

When individual rights clash with opposing views and dialogue shuts down to the extent that it prevents dialogue that could improve the ability to better understand one another and better co-exist; something is wrong.

When our rights or should I say perceived rights can prevent further discussion on things agreed upon; something is wrong.

"Responsibility exceeds rights."

Imagine a nation or a world where we took
“Responsibilities exceeds rights” to heart and applied it in all we did. Focus on our responsibilities would cause us to adopt entirely new mindsets that would change the world.

Imagine the benefits we could expect to see if we not only adopted Fred’s quote, but also passed it on to future generations with the following statements;

We have a responsibility to get along with one another.
We have a responsibility to instill strong moral values into youth and young adults who will soon lead.
We have a responsibility to develop young leaders.
We have a responsibility to fix the societal problems that threaten our existence and perpetuate injustice.
We have a responsibility to connect the multiple generations living today.
We have a responsibility to serve the needy.
We have a responsibility to increase our levels of empathy to understand both the passions and pains of others.

As you may have surmise , I concur with Fred, “Responsibility exceeds rights." Further, until we fully grasp Fred’s quote and embrace it as a foundational truth, we’re likely to continue to experience a moral and social decline and become more divided as a nation and world.

I encourage you to give this matter some deep thought and determine if responsibilities exceed rights in your life.