Responsibilities

The Founding Fathers did not bother to write down a bill of particulars for our social responsibilities to match the Bill of Rights. In the days of closely knit communities and religiously committed individuals, one's responsibilities were all too clear - it was rights that needed enshrining. However, as public opinion polls keep reminding us, it seems we have come full circle - rights are now taken for granted while responsibilities are shirked. A study has shown that young Americans expect to be tried before a jury of their peers but are rather reluctant to serve on one. A survey of youth conducted by the People for the American Way found that, when asked what was special about the United States, the young people responded: "Individualism and the fact that it is a democracy and you can do whatever you want.

When Erika Messam takes the court, she carries with her a lengthy to-do checklist of responsibilities in her mind. Need a clutch rebound? The 5-foot-8 senior from Pemberton delivers. A three-point basket? Knock it down and cross it off the list. Running the fastbreak, dishing off to the open player or provide leadership to the younger athletes? Check. Check. Check. Accomplishing all those things is tough enough for one player, but it's amazing stuff when you consider Messam is listed as a point guard.

America's founders never had junior-high Civics. The Constitution shows this quite clearly. Somehow, its authors missed a social message almost as ubiquitous as "wash your hands before eating" (and equally unpopular among adolescents): "Rights bring responsibilities. " The founders gave no voice to that basic social equation. America has a brilliant, 200-year-old Bill of Rights, but no comparable, complementary Bill of Responsibilities. The founders elevated our rights to be part of the nation's highest law, but citizens' responsibilities are spelled out by laws and policies far below the constitutional level, as if they were minor details to be bartered and fiddled with to fit the moment.

WHILE cracking down on scofflaws in Philadelphia, why don't we go after the fathers who owe thousands in child support while we're at it? Is it fair to penalize only careless drivers while letting careless, negligent so-called "dads" avoid their responsibilities to the children they helped bring into the world? Marilyn Cedeno Philadelphia

Mother's Day is approaching, and we want to hear from you. Tell us what it's like to be a mom in 1997. How has motherhood changed since your mother raised you? What kind of responsibilities do you juggle? What are the greatest challenges? What are the greatest joys? Send essays to Community Voices at the address above.

Many of us who volunteer time to a youth or community group never seem to realize the time spent year in and year out. Days fly, yet all we do is continue with our responsibilities, as we have chosen to get involved. Most of us work, sometimes two jobs, and have family responsibilities and other commitments. I guess there are many reasons we get involved. Maybe it's conscience, dedication, or just the enjoyment of working with kids. But it is not enough; we need more volunteers to take responsibility and reduce the workload.

As technology has become more hyperactive, we the people have become more laid-back; as the deposits in its memory banks have become more fat, the deposits in man's memory bank have become more lean. Like Harold Pinter's servant, the machine has assumed the responsibilities that were once the master's. The latter has become the shell of a once thoughtful, though indolent, being. It is the Law Of Diminishing Enlightenment at work. - From the introduction to Studs Terkel's "The Great Divide"

POOR PGW, crying again! Well, I don't want to hear it or pay more for it! My bill is already $250 a month! I am sick and tired of PGW. Granted, there are some PGW customers who could care less about paying their bill. I do my best to pay as much as I can every month. What about the people who do not qualify for any kind of assistance because they are not below poverty level but are middle-class and finding it hard to keep up? PGW, PECO and the Water Revenue Bureau are raising rates.

Upper Gwynedd Township Commissioner Thomas Kemper has announced his resignation from the Board of Commissioners effective next Thursday. Kemper's term was due to expire Dec. 31, and he was not running for re-election. According to Township Manager Leonard Perrone, Kemper told the board that his increasing responsibilities at work would not leave him enough time to responsibly fill the position as commissioner. Kemper has served on the board since June 1984. Kenneth Kroberger is the only person running for Kemper's seat in the fall election.

RE: Ronnie Polaneczky's column: At no time did Warden John Delaney "mishandle" or convert to his personal use any monies entrusted to him. At the hearing on this matter, the city "investigator" was asked a series of questions on this issue and specifically stated that it was not his belief that Warden Delaney stole any of the money entrusted to him or that he used it for other than authorized purposes. After a three-year investigation costing the city likely thousands of dollars, the presenting of more than 15 witnesses by the city's deputy chief integrity officer and a recognition by the commissioner of prisons that this problem could have been resolved three years ago, Warden Delaney was reprimanded.

LOWELL, Mass. - Boston's police department and mayor's office will conduct twin reviews of the response to last month's bombing of the Boston Marathon, Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Saturday. Davis said the aim of the reviews is to learn from the experience and prepare for the future. "We are very anxious to get those reviews underway and learn lessons from anything that might pop up as an issue of concern," Davis said. "I expect that this whole year will be a time of review and reflection on what happened.

WASHINGTON - Citing problems exposed by the Boston Marathon bombings, senators weighing amendments to a sweeping immigration bill agreed Tuesday to boost security provisions around student visas. The Senate Judiciary Committee agreed by voice vote to an amendment by Republican Sen. Charles F. Grassley of Iowa meant to ensure that border patrol agents at U.S. ports of entry have access to information on the status of student visas. The committee action follows recent revelations that a student from Kazakhstan accused of hiding evidence for one of the Boston bombing suspects was allowed to return to the United States in January without a valid student visa.

The Internal Revenue Service has found itself at the other end of an audit, and rightly so. The recent revelation that the agency targeted conservative groups for heightened scrutiny raises the specter of misuse of one of government's greatest powers - taxation - for political purposes. Starting in early 2010, as a conservative backlash against the Obama administration was growing, IRS officials began paying special attention to applications for tax-exempt status from groups with names including the words "tea party" and "patriot," according to documents from an internal investigation obtained by the Washington Post.

I'M THE marina owner featured in the cover story in the Daily News on Friday, May 3. I didn't come across as I wanted, so I'd like for your readers to hear my own words about progress we've made since Superstorm Sandy. I am fully insured, and have been since 1996, however the contents - including all of the inventory in the store, the garage and sheds, along with tools, diagnostic tools, power tools, etc. - were not covered because there was an exclusion for rising water. If the roof blew off, I would have been covered.

KARACHI, Pakistan - Two blasts in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi killed three people near the office of a political party critical of the Taliban, a police officer said, heightening tensions ahead of the country's historic election next Saturday. Police officer Aamir Farooqi said the explosions late Saturday wounded 22 people. A spokesman for the Taliban, Ahsanullah Ahsan, claimed responsibility. Pakistan has been experiencing a wave of violence connected to the elections, mostly at the hands of Taliban extremists targeting various political parties and their candidates.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie made regulatory oversight - especially safeguards for those who are underage and additional funding for treatment of compulsive gamblers - key to his signing off on the bill that legalized Internet gaming in New Jersey. On Wednesday, a forum on "Responsible Gambling for the Future" at the Statehouse Annex, far from the glamour and glitz of Atlantic City, addressed those issues and others. The forum's goal, said Donald Weinbaum, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, was to come up with a tenable five-year work plan among all sectors involved as gaming options proliferate - a process that "will ultimately lead to an expanded system of prevention, awareness, early intervention, and treatment services for persons at risk of gambling addiction.

I WANT TO commend the Daily News on its editorial, "Hite and Sink," which accurately captures the challenges facing the Philadelphia School District. My Council colleagues and I understand that Philadelphia schools are in a funding crisis, and we understand that Harrisburg (which has overseen Philadelphia schools for over a decade) is the party most responsible for that crisis. City Council has been working closely with our state delegation to support their efforts to convince the governor to stand up for our schoolchildren.

The Boston Marathon bombings have reminded Americans that we can never let down our guard against terrorism. But Mayor Nutter has rightly pointed out that the daily carnage from violent crime in the nation's cities also demands attention. Nutter wants to see violent crime, like terrorism, attacked from a national as well as a local perspective, opening the door for more federal aid for municipal police. America hasn't done much at the federal level to address violence since President Bill Clinton won congressional approval of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The bill was passed with support from law-and-order Republicans before Clinton was crippled by the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

LUSHAN, China - The tent village that sprang up in two days to house quake survivors in mountain-flanked Lushan is no ordinary refugee camp. China's full range of disaster response is on display: Trucks with X-ray equipment, phone-charging stations, bank tellers-on-wheels - even a tent for insurance claims. The efforts under way Monday in mountainous Sichuan province after a quake Saturday that killed at least 188 people showed that the government has continued to hone its disaster reaction - long considered a crucial leadership test in China - since a much more devastating earthquake in 2008, also in Sichuan, and another one in 2010 in the western region of Yushu.