Personal responsibility

For once, a blog that isn’t about my kids. I’m gonna do some more pictures later but want to blog first. As most of you know, I am an attorney. I see first hand that most people take absolutely no responsibility for their actions. Everyone has an excuse or blames someone or something else. It’s very sad, really, but I guess at least somewhat that’s why I have a job. Now, don’t get me wrong, there ARE certainly people out there who have been injured, physically or otherwise, who deserve to be compensated for that. And there are people and companies out there who screw with the general public and deserve to be monetarily punished. But there are far too many people out there who just want money when they don’t deserve it. Some examples I’ve heard (people who’ve called our office): the woman who wanted to sue DNR because a deer ran out in front of her, she swerved, ran off the road, lost control, and wrecked her car; the woman who wanted to sue Beyonce because her husband heard her karaoking “Irreplacable” and left her because of it; the person who was involved in a single car accident and wanted to sue someone, until we explained he had to sue himself for his own negligence.

But my current example: the father who is suing Jack Whittaker (the dude who won 317 million in the lottery but says he’s now broke) because the son ODed on cocaine and died while in the company of Whittaker’s granddaughter. I have a lot of issues with this one. Yes, Whittaker gave her too much money for a teenager to be flashing around. Yes, he gave her anything she wanted with no regard for her true wellbeing. Yes, she eventually ODed also, probably because she had never had any boundaries. But NO ONE made your kid do coke repeatedly, not Jack, not his granddaughter. Your kid hung out with her because he knew he could score free drugs. I’m sorry, but if it was Jack’s fault, why wasn’t it the PARENTS’ fault for not keeping their kid away from Brandi? It’s very sad that two young people are dead because of drugs and an abundance of money, but no one made them take drugs. And no one intervened in their drug taking. But whose job is it to make sure YOUR kid isn’t using drugs? I think it’s my job, not someone else’s. Kids do stupid crap and unfortunately both of these kids died because of it. But that doesn’t make it someone’s fault.