Let the Blame Game End!

Not the Name Game . . .

The Blame Game

Remember the song, “The Name Game”? You could make a new name out of anyone’s name. Billy becomes “Billy, Billy, bo-gil-ly, bo-na-na Fanna, fo-fil-ly, Fee fi mo-mil-ly, Billy!”

The Name Game is much more fun than that other game: The Blame Game. Someone does something wrong, and quick as a flash, the Blame Game begins. He/she had a terrible upbringing. That horrid crime? It’s the parents’ fault. It’s the fault of politics. It’s the fault of the culture. It’s the fault of the food the person ate or didn’t eat.

An unhinged, criminal person goes to a baseball practice and shoots several people, two of them members of Congress: The Blame Game begins with false accusations: It’s the fault of the media. It’s the fault of the Democrats. It’s the fault of the culture.

No. The Blame Game must stop here: It’s the fault of the person who shot them. (I won’t glorify him by writing his name.) It’s not the fault of anyone else.

Stop morphing the Name Game into the Blame Game, by substituting other names for the name of the person responsible for what has been done.

Those people who do terrible things? It’s their fault. They pick up the gun. They pick up the knife. They use their fists. They make the bombs. Individuals certainly are influenced by the culture around them, but the actions they take are their own. Let’s be clear about that: The evil actions people take are their own.