Entering the era of responsibility | Tito Hinojos

My stomach turned as if I was getting sick.

I listened to this multimillion-dollar athlete tell America the “white lie” of his so-called immature mistake of injecting steroids.

I mumbled to myself, “que pendejo.” Why would anyone be so stupid and idiotic to think that we would buy his inconsistent and inaccurate confession? The audacity to tell the world that he is now a more responsible person and "mature" sure opened a can of worms.

When is someone going to step up to the plate and take responsibility, be sincerely remorseful and take whatever medicine he has coming? Perhaps we can learn from Socrates’ act of ownership for his actions. History teaches us that the philosopher had been incarcerated for corrupting the youth. Many believed he was unjustly imprisoned and condemned to death. While awaiting his death, a friend visited with him and tried to persuade Socrates to escape.

Socrates refused to break the laws of Athens and to adhere to his friend’s suggestion. Instead he accepted the penalty, and today, the decision of death is one of the greatest examples of an individual taking responsibility for his actions. This illustrates how one is responsible to himself, family and his community. I am not advocating death penalties or condemn everyone who has done wrong to the electric chair. But some responsibility must be accounted for.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what status you rank in society. Your integrity meter will read what you put into it.

I always say: It’s like having two dogs fighting inside your gut, and the one that is fed the most wins. If you feed the growl that is honest, then the ingredients would include being genuine, real, authentic and reliable. This expresses both self-respect and respect for others.

But if you throw the bones to the dishonest bark, then the poisonous and toxic ingredients would include being a fake, secretive behaviors, a disposition to be living in the dark, always covert with his actions, and having no self-respect or respect for others.

To compound the issue of being responsible for one’s actions, society seems to condone the dishonesty and the manipulative words of a liar, thus releasing that individual from accepting his/her "medicine." It is unfortunate that society still has the tendencies to be unjust by forgiving, based on race, gender, color, religion or choice of political affiliation. The beneficiaries of this form of injustice and ill-advised decisions include athletes, politicians, educators, clergy, parents, sports’ coaches, doctors — and the list goes on forever.

However, the list of those that are noble, honest, fair, practice equal rights, and are good Samaritans, is short and often unmentioned.

Contact Federal Way Mirror Que onda? (What's up?) Tito Hinojos at trhinojos@msn.com.

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