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| Well, they are both fruit... |
Somewhat related to yesterday's post is this odd notion I heard expressed recently: "Your rights are my responsibility".
Well, no.
Your rights are your responsibility. My only responsibility concerning your rights is to not interfere with you exercising them. I am responsible for not violating you, and if I do, I'm responsible for that, too.
As an example, you have the fundamental human right to own and to carry weapons. I do not have the responsibility to provide you with those weapons; I only have the responsibility to not try to prevent you from owning and carrying them.
For most people, being responsible for their own rights (among the other things they are responsible for) is a very heavy "burden". It's so much easier to demand everyone "give you" your rights than it is to recognize they aren't responsible for that.
The other side of the coin is that it's also so much easier to violate people than it is to respect their right to do things you don't like.
And yes, rights bring responsibilities along with them, even if most responsibilities have nothing to do with rights.
