Priorities and Responsibilities

In the past I have rarely used my blog as a forum for personal issues, although I have personalized many issues that have made the headlines. This week has been a week of personal priorities rather than outside interests such as One Person's Views. It has also served to make me more acutely aware of priorities and responsibilities.

The past decades have been a contrast in our society of priorities and responsibilities. If I were asked to actually list the how I saw the decades during my life, as I remember them, I would do it like this:

• 1950s   Family, job and self. 
• 1960s   Personal exploration, freedom and social consciousness.
• 1970s   Conflict, social change and confusion.
• 1980s   Conformation, affluence and greed.
• 1990s   A continuation of the me generation and being politically correct.
• 2000s   Fear, lack of trust and cautiousness.

The above is the way I see society in our country either acting or reacting for those periods. While I am not a sociologist, I would also venture to guess the American family has suffered. During each period there seems to a growing division between priorities and responsibilities.

Priorities, in this One Person's View, have changed from family to self and responsibilities have become something someone else should have done. There is a segment of our society that has always and will always continue to live their lives with integrity. Demanding the most from themselves not for themselves.

They are the one percent (approximately) of our military who make up our elite units. Units such as Special Forces, SEALS, Force Recon and the Air Force's SOF (Special Operations Force), which includes the PJs, the pararescuemen. Based very much on the motto of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point "Duty, Honor, Country." This one percent lives each day with this ingrained in their minds and it is not limited to just their military career.

Looking at this weeks varied headlines I can't help but wonder what percentage of the American population would fall into such a category. I recall two old sayings they are direct opposites but it does bring a question to mind. The first saying is: "The cream rises to the top." Describing the best. The second is simply "Shit floats." Painting a picture of the opposite.

The dilemma is twofold. First, how do you tell which is which? Second, and more importantly: which are you?

Just something to think about. Have a great weekend!