Personal Responsibility

Perhaps one of the most memorable statements I heard during the summit was:

"People have a responsibility to act on their own and not wait for instructions on what to do."

Maybe it was due to the context that occurred to me, but I was particularly struck when I heard this. While it is doubtless comforting to leave everything up to someone else, especially someone who is wise and we rightly respect, we still remain responsible for our own actions. And it is our responsibility to do what is right.

As long as we are part of this world, it is our responsibility to be informed about it. It is our responsibility to investigate and ask questions, and then apply the moral principles we have learned to decide whether or not to do something or how to do it. This is why we study and examine those moral principles, to be able to use basic truths--for example, do not harm--in new situations. But if we remain uninformed, we will not even realize the harm we are doing. So we cannot wait for someone to provide us with instructions for every situation we encounter. We need to educate ourselves and accept our responsibilities.