Positive Behavior - Responsibility

Several weeks ago a tornado touched down in Joplin, MO.  It was the deadliest in 50 years (and we all know the details because there is nothing the media likes better than a good disaster with lots of pictures).  All the networks covered it for days presenting numerous interviews with residents.  What was remarkable (and admirable) was how few of these people talked or acted like victims.  Comments were consistently along the lines of, "We'll recover from this" and "We'll all work together" and "We're fighters and this won't get us down."  This shows the positive side of responsibility.  There were no calls for or complaints about government help.  Joplin residents were not looking for someone else to solve their problems.  Although they did nothing to deserve it, they were not sitting back feeling sorry for themselves.  Similar to those in Iowa after the floods and few years back, their take-charge attitude was an excellent example of positive behavior in the dimension of responsibility.

This highly responsibile behavior gives us hope and make us proud to be Americans.  See how patterns of responsible behavior across society could strengthen the country and put us in a a position to solve - or perhaps avoid in the first place - many of the problems we face today.  See how on a broader level behavior has consequences, both positivie and negative, not only in this key dimension, but in the others as well.

This is truly a different model, a different way of looking at America and the key to finding real answers.