Responsibility… an article for Blog Action Day 2008 Against Poverty

By Alternative Channel's Youth Contributor Cody Larocque

Pick up any dictionary and look up the word responsibility and you’ll find synonyms like; moral, legal or mental accountability, reliability, trustworthiness and burden. Now throw the word “social” in front of responsibility and now we have a dilemma. How many of us are actually socially responsible, truly and honestly live up to the tenants of the golden rule? For the most part I hear crickets chirping.

Being responsible is something we all need to take some time to think about. Our parent’s time is over; they are set in their ways and unless convinced otherwise for the most part will not change. Just because they are comfortable with the way the world is, in her (Earth) totally disastrous state both environmentally and socially, DOES NOT give us the right to do the same. I don’t seem to recall when apathy became the “in” thing to do; I guess it snuck in with all the cars clothes and shoes. Empathy subsequently was tossed into the corner like an old stuffed animal of childhood on the eve of adolescent self realization. It is with that very same fact of self realization, which North America is famous for that caused us (the youth) to be turned off from our connection to the rest of the world.

We are our brother’s keeper, whether we want to be or not by the mere fact of being alive and human we are responsible to and for each other. No human being should be left cold, hungry and homeless in today’s world of more then plenty. Just imagine what a happier place the world would be if just these three basic needs where met, not to mention the right to education and decent healthcare. Just because I live on the east of the Atlantic and on the Westside of the pacific doesn’t mean I do not have brothers and sisters in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, who like me deserve every right I have to the aforementioned essential human needs.

How are we going to change? There are two words which will be the saving grace of our generation, Compassion and Kindness. The first being the knowledge of the worlds’ suffering with the drive to alleviate it and the second one, open and friendly regard for those other than oneself will help humanity to bounce back from its terminal obsession with both apathy and selfishness. It does not take much; in fact even helping out our own poor in our own neighbourhoods would start the spark which would eventually rekindle the fire of human brotherly love.

All this being said, please don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost hope for us(youth), every day I see new student and youth run charities, fundraisers and generally an increased awareness in social responsibility. We do care about the world, we where raised wanting to change the wrongs that the past created, lets keep going and who knows what will happen in the next decade or two.

Photo by:*Darinka* courtesy of flickr.com

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