Failing accountability fails America

By Jason Wadlington

Surveying the contemporary landscape of this campus, this state and this nation, I realize we are slipping from a world of sanity and serenity and plunging ever further into a world of insanity. A world filled with occurrences we subconsciously know to be unacceptable, but tolerate them nonetheless.

We stumble along through the ever-merging days with a glazed expression plastered on our faces. We are either unwilling to accept, or unaware of what is going on around us. Nevertheless, ignorance is bliss, so we continue on the path in our stupefied state having been pacified over the years by the comforting thought that we are helpless to stop the ruination of our country.

One example of this conformity was witnessed on this campus on Veteran’s Day. This is a day when we as Americans are able to collectively thank those men and women who have courageously risked their lives to better ours.

We are the country that enjoys the most individual freedoms, and the cost of our freedom has been paid in full by those who have been brave enough to serve this country in times of conflict and peace.

Yet we did not commemorate this day with time off school as we do for Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez and Presidents Washington and Lincoln. We marked this day as if it were just another Tuesday, with some pageantry put on by the ROTC.

If the people listed above warrant us a day off, then undoubtedly veterans deserve much more. They risked it all, and we have reaped the benefits of their sacrifices. We should show them the respect they deserve.

Another case of insanity that has somehow escaped the intrigue of America is the Elizabeth Smart documentary. In our world where information flows like Niagara Falls, it is not uncommon to see a documentary made just months after an event has occurred. What is bizarre is to see two parents, not only help make the movie, but also widely and vigorously promote the movie on every show they possibly could. And this is not the feel-good movie of a girl surviving in a forest for nine-months after becoming detached from her hiking group. This is the story of a 13-year-old girl being abducted from her room in front of her younger sister and living with two strangers for nine months, being sexually assaulted, emotionally destroyed and psychologically brainwashed.

This is the story of a horrid ordeal that will undoubtedly have an unimaginable impact on her future life. But there was a story to tell and money to be made, so the parents told the story and made the money. What a great place America is.

Finally a sad sign of the times—tobacco company Phillip Morris. If you watch a lot of television like I do, you would have seen that Phillip Morris is now being forced to run public service announcements in which they tell their customers not only that smoking is bad, but that they can go to their Web site and get tips on how to quit.

The government has attacked the tobacco companies to the point where they not only have to admit that they are indeed the devil, but they now also have to advertise against themselves. This goes against all principles of capitalism and the free-market society—which our whole economy is founded on. This is equivalent to forcing McDonald’s to run public service announcements declaring that fast food will lead to premature death and that you should never eat it again. But maybe I shouldn’t give the government any ideas.

America has descended quite a distance from the days when it was governed by common sense and accountability. Just a few years back it would have been common sense not to make money off your daughter’s tragic sexual assault ordeal. But as accountability has died out, common sense has followed.

Because if there is nothing—or no one—you are accountable to, then who has the authority to determine what exactly is common sense? It is time to hold each other accountable, whether it is the government taking away Veteran’s Day, or parents using their daughter. America can still be salvaged.

— This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu