My passion is to foster responsibility. In my seminars and in my books on education and on parenting, I refer to victimhood thinking and how to teach young people to be VICTORS—rather than victims.
With this in mind, let me share an e-mail I received from my sister-in-law, Bobbie Marshall:
"Let's see if I understand how America works lately.
'If a woman burns her thighs from the hot coffee she was holding in her lap while driving, she blames the restaurant. If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die of lung cancer, your family blames the tobacco company. If your daughter gets pregnant by the football captain, you blam the school for poor sex education.
'If a neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, he blames the bartender. If a cousin gets AIDS because the needle he used to shoot up with heroin was dirty, he blames the government for not providing clean ones.
"If your grandchildren are brats without manners, you blame television. If your friend is shot by a deranged madman, you blame the gun manufacturer. And if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead, the mother of the deceased blames the airline."
So if I suddenly depart from this world while writing about how to promote responsibility, blame my computer.
