I’m not a good enough writer to adequately articulate everything happening in the world. All I can do is suggest what I think we’re lacking most right now:
ACCOUNTABILITY.
Growing up, sports was my ultimate measure of accountability. You won or lost. Made or missed. Earned playing time or were replaced.
Your actions had consequences, and you were held accountable for them.
When you’re not accountable, it doesn’t matter. Do what you want, when you want, to who you want. If you don’t penalize me for taking an inch, you better believe I’m going to continue taking that inch. I might even try to take the whole mile.
Depending on your life experiences, you’re probably already conjuring up an image of exactly whom I’m currently referring to when I say “accountability.”
In my eyes, I’ll start with the “Big Three”:
Police Officers. This is the most obvious. I heard the phrase this morning:
The blindest man is not the one that cannot see; it’s the one that chooses not to.
Racism and acts of injustice cannot go unnoticed. Reports of “incidents” and wrongdoings…ALL of them…must be met with accountability. It’s simply inexcusable not to.
Elected Officials. Whether at the local, state or national level, your character as a leader is MAGNIFIED during crisis (it is the reason I did the Courageous Leadership Series at the start of the pandemic). Being a Democrat or Republican doesn’t guarantee that you’re weak or strong. Your communication style and letting people see you, hear you, DOES. And making the right decision, wrong decision, or even worse, NO decision, carries accountability.
Opportunists. I’m 100% in favor of peaceful protests—it’s one of our rights. I’ve even softened my stance on “rioting being the language of the unheard.” But how does looting a store for a new tv or pair of sneakers mean there’s now “justice” for George Floyd? It’s called THEFT, and people should be held accountable for it.
I’m yet to see many, if ANY, situations that aren’t made better by higher levels of accountability. I pray this is part of the good that comes out of something so bad.
God bless,
