When Did Personal Responsibility Become a Dirty Phrase?

Recent events suggest that personal responsibility, which what has always been a core American value, is no longer valued, and that we’re turning into a society that’s becoming increasingly dependent upon an unwieldy and bloated government for our survival.

Last week the Biden administration announced it would extend a pause on student-loan repayments through the end of August.

“If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans’ financial stability,” Biden said.

However, this week Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shot back that a simple pause in the payments “ain’t enough,” and the government should instead be cancelling student debt altogether.

“I have talked personally to the president on this issue a whole bunch of times. I have told him that this is more important than just about anything else that he can do on his own,” the New York Democrat told the State of Student Debt Summit during a virtual event on Wednesday, according to The Hill.

This whole idea of being dependent upon government for our very existence has been building for generations, but it really gained steam when COVID relief funds were handed out following the onset of the disease.

Schumer continued, “That is so much money. How does anybody live knowing every month I got to pay this $400? So the pause has stopped that, but make no mistake about it. This pause isn’t going to stay forever and the canceling of student debt is the way to go.”

People have been paying off student debt and working their way through college for generations. Coincidentally, while this back-and-forth over a pause in payments versus debt cancellation was going on, one female veteran demonstrated how she and her husband had done exactly that.

And she promptly got punished for it.

Air Force veteran Gretchen Smith, 49, posted a statement on her LinkedIn page describing how she was able to start from nothing and earn multiple college degrees without acquiring a trainload of loans. She prefaced her explanation with a fundamental truth.

“I’m not responsible for your college debt,” she began.

“I grew up in poverty in the mountains of [North Carolina]. Ate from a garden, name was on community Angel tree for Christmas, bought clothes from yard sales and if I was lucky, on a rare occasion Sky City,” she wrote, referring to a former chain of discount stores.

“I joined the Air Force, then went to college. I made it happen,” she said.

Within hours Smith, who’d founded the nonprofit Code of Vets, an organization dedicated to “taking care of our own, one vet at a time,” learned that LinkedIn had shut her account down, claiming that she’d violated the platform’s “policy on hate speech.”

Using the Code of Vets Twitter account, she announced, “I was locked out of @LinkedIn just now for this exact post below. It went viral. This is the second time this platform has targeted me. I am frustrated and disappointed. Freedom of Speech has been secured by our blood, sweat and lives. This has got to stop.”

Following that statement and appearances on cable news, LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, another tech giant, apologized and reinstated Smith’s account.

The experience highlights a number of self-inflicted problems we face today, beginning with the erosion of free speech by Big Tech in 21st century America.

Free speech is a basic requirement of a thriving democracy, and yesterday billionaire entrepreneur Elon Muck announced his intention to initiate a hostile takeover of Twitter in order to convert it into the free speech platform it once was.

LinkedIn’s actions also illustrate how hypersensitive and triggered an increasing number of Americans have become over any speech they find disagreeable. Whatever happened to, "I may disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it”?

But finally, Smith’s experience also highlights the degradation of the pioneer “can do” spirit and strong work ethic by which each and every American could be identified.

That sense of self-sufficiency, dignity and personal responsibility have been slipping away for generations and declined sharply during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s past time that we discard this COVID “help me” attitude and get back to work.

If anyone is at a loss as to how to go about doing it, simply follow Smith’s lead. The American spirit courses through her bloodstream.