The Buck Stops Here – Coast Contact

I remember well when I had my first full time job as a youth, working in the hardware department of Sears. On the store manager’s desk was a prominent sign that read, “The Buck Stops Here.” He meant it. President Truman fostered the idea years before with the famous sign on his desk and it stuck with a lot of Americans. Like many of my generation, I embraced this philosophy as a very young man and it has guided my personal and professional life ever since. Personal responsibility is a necessity, not an option. It is what built America into a great country. However, things have become a tad different.

That was then and now is now. Today it is always about the blame game. When did this country slip on its ass and fail to get back up?

– A man kills a lion but pleads it was his guide’s fault.

– A man kills another man and says it was the Twinkie’s fault.

– A man gets lung cancer and claims it was Marlboro’s fault.

– One mass killing after another and it’s always the gun manufacturer’s fault.

– A woman burns herself with hot coffee and it was McDonald’s fault.

– A teenager gets fat and claims it was Coca Cola’s fault.

– (You can fill in the list yourself from here.)

It took the U.S. government decades to finally acknowledge its responsibility for the many health problems suffered by U.S. service personnel because of Agent Orange. Even then, they tried to shove the blame off to chemical companies who made the stuff. Through the years, personal responsibility has fully given way to blame gaming and has transformed our once proud humanity into a listless mob seeking to foist our personal responsibility onto others.

In basketball, when a player makes a foul, he raises his hand to acknowledge responsibility. It’s one of the few examples left in which responsibility is openly accepted. When something goes wrong in the rest of America, the government and its people tend to just shrug and say, “The buck stops…. nowhere.” The very concept of responsibility seems to have vanished in America. Maybe we need more basketball players in government and in our society as a whole.

Responsibility cannot and should not be passed to someone or something else.

If you have an opinion on this subject, please share it here. As for my opinions, “The Buck Stops Here!”

author Allen E. Rizzi

My response:

Sadly in Trump’s world someone else is to blame. The Chinese are to be blamed for the corona virus. Past presidents are blamed for everything that is wrong in America. The media is blamed for reporting information that puts Trump in a bad light. The political polls are all formatted to report he, Trump, is behind. Loss in the November election will be blamed on millions of fraudulent ballots.

Kristen Welker of NBC asks Trump whether he takes responsibility for the lag in making test kits available.

Trump’s reply:

No.

I don’t take responsibility at all.

Donald Trump in the East Room discussing health care

The sign “The Buck Stops Here” was on President Truman’s desk in his White House office. In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, “The President–whoever he is–has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.

Sadly our current president takes no responsibility. It’s always someone else’s fault. That is strange considering he repeatedly refuses to listen to the specialists in intelligence, health care, and every other department.

As president, Trump blamed “liberal judges” for rejecting his initial travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries. He blamed Obama for his own policy of separating families seeking asylum. He blamed the media and Democrats for perpetrating a hoax about the dangers of the coronavirus. He then blamed China for failing to apprise us about the pandemic, even though he was briefed on it before he took remedial action. He blamed a nonexistent Obama era regulation for his own failure to provide medical professionals with adequate testing kits for the coronavirus. He blamed governors for the lack of protective equipment for health care workers.

March 13: “I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said defiantly, pointing to an unspecified “set of circumstances” and “rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.”

March 27: The president blamed General Motors and its CEO, Mary Barra, for not manufacturing more ventilators to treat patients.

What’s next for our very “stable genius?” Or perhaps the question should be Mr. President, When will you take responsibility?