Making a mistake is one thing, but being just plain careless is something else entirely. While both actions could well have disastrous results, they are usually corrected in different ways. Everyone makes a mistake now and then, and we are supposed to learn from them and not make the same mistake again. But carelessness is inexcusable when it happens the first time.
Unfortunately, there are some places where carelessness has been relegated to “just a mistake” status and the results have been very costly, indeed. For example, just look at what has happened within the past week, all involving “government” workers:
- Two people of dubious character crash a state dinner at the White House and are able to walk right up to the President. Two days after that, an innocent couple who inadvertantly showed up at the wrong time for a White House tour are mistakenly escorted into a breakfast gathering with the President where they are seated.
- In Italy, the prime minister is physically assaulted and hospitalized for two days after a man gets past a careless cordon of bodyguards.
- Yesterday a deranged woman physically attacks the Pope inside the church. This is the 2nd consecutive Christmas that this same woman has done this. She was already known to the Vatican security detail, and yet she was able to enter the church and plunge through the crowd and knock him down.
- Also yesterday, a man who was already on the terrorist watch list was permitted to get on a Delta Airlines airship where he attempted to blow it up over Detroit.
It has been my observation that these types of events have become more prevalent in recent years because personnel and labor rules have shifted responsibility away from the people who commit the infractions. What used to be firing offenses are now just innocent mistakes that seem to be handled this way:
“You let that guy through the barrier!”
“No I didn’t. It wasn’t my fault.”
“Yes you did…. here’s the video showing you failing to do your job.”
“Oh, okay. But Jack let me do it. It wasn’t my fault. I’m sorry.”
“Are you really sorry?”
“Yes, I’m really, really very, very sorry.”
“Well then, that’s alright. Don’t do it again.”
This lack of accountability is having a snowball effect throughout our entire culture and it has led to situations like those that I just ennmerated above. This cultural cancer is bigger than you and I can get rid of ourselves, but we can make sure that we don’t become the next disaster to be reported. Not only when we are at work, but everywhere, whether we are aiming a 1-ton automobile along the highway, or starting a fire in our home fireplace. It is too easy to become fatally careless these days. And with the supervisory tools to enforce safe actions being taken away from us, it has become far too easy to just “let things go.”
But all of us have not just a legal responsibility, but a moral responsibility to do our best to prevent disasters large and small. So let’s take a moment to stop and think about it and make an effort to shore up our own actions that others are relying on us to perform properly. Responsibility begins with ourselves.
Now let’s do the responsible thing and get this equipment checked out. I’ll make sure that the coffee is safely started. See you back in the day room.
