Accepting personal responsibility is a crucial issue in today's individualist society especially among those who appear to "have it all together." Of that crowd, people believe that regardless of the circumstances of life, no one should have any excuse for the hardships that befall them.

If the homeless are homeless, it is probably their fault. If the poor are poor, it is their fault, and if the sick and or mentally handicap are incapacitated, it is of their own doing. Little compassion - a main ingredient of Christianity, the sole religion America was supposedly built upon - comes from the hearts or minds of advantaged people, except in monetary form.

Many, having little or no knowledge of what it means to struggle against the powers of a capitalist society when belonging to a certain clique or even race, but these people suppose that life is easy enough to defeat and that all people should have the capabilities to do so. This thinking is shallow and infected with the behavior of vindictiveness.

Vindictiveness because, even when someone attempts to act on their own responsibility and the attempt is not good enough, there is criticism. For example, kicking a dog when it is down is an act of vindictiveness. When a person is at their low point or has made a mistake, the person who rubs that fault into their face is being vindictive. This person has no knowledge of or is deceived as to what his or her own feces smells like.

This mind-set shows a lack of knowledge in areas of life that are vital when necessary. When life is good and a person lives according to that goodness, they know nothing about what it takes to survive during hard times. And if hard times ever knocked at their door, they would almost certainly not answer it for fear of what it could make of them. This is cowardly.

Eventually, hard times come around the corner seeking that vindictive one. In addition, all those their cruelty has affected are usually there, or not too far away, to see the vengeance against their evils. This is when the cry for mercy is heard loud and clear and beyond the realm of humanity. Nevertheless, the cries are ignored because they are drowned out by the cries of those who were victims of their spite.

Black America cannot allow themselves to adopt this attitude because it will destroy what dignity the true Black America hangs on to today. To avoid this mind-set, one has to experience all sides of life and learn to appreciate each and everyone whose paths they happen across. Suppressing forgiveness is a mistake and enforcing vindictiveness is detrimental to ones self in the end.

© 2004 by CR Hamilton