Choice and Accountability
Posted by Jessica in Lessons
We all make choices we regret, sometimes we regret not making a choice, and even sometimes we didn't have a choice and regret that. But nevertheless, we are human and mistakes happen. I have tried awfully hard to not dwell upon mistakes in my past, as there is very little you can do about them besides try better. And while Maya Angelou's statement applies here, "You did what you knew how to do. And when you knew better, you did better", sometimes we know better but don't act with that knowledge.
Today many things happened which have been continual reminders about how, when faced with a choice, we must make the right choice, and if what we presume to be the right choice turns out to be wrong, be willing to be accountable for that choice. Too often we are quick to pass the buck, ignore the responsibility of our actions, or simply live in ignorance and keep making bad choices (such as McCain supporting the escalation), instead of looking foolish, if even for a brief second, while we admit we made a mistake.
These reminders today can be summed up in this picture with its caption. Let us hope and pray none of us are found to witness such atrocity, such pain, such suffering and not do everything in our power to eliminate it.
In case you can't read the caption, it basically states that the picture was taken by Kevin Carter, which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. The photo depicts the 1994 Sudan famine where the vulture is staring at the helpless child who is about a kilometer away from the United Nations food camp. Kevin didn't help the little girl who had collapsed and cried out from crawling to the food camp.
3 months later after Kevin took the picture, he committed suicide due to depression. Before he killed himself he stated, "I'm really, really sorry I didn't pick the child up."
