Reasonable Doubt

Sometimes in life we are forced to take a good hard look at
ourselves, and wonder. Looking back it is always easy to say what we
should have done. It is also easy to justify and minimize our past
actions with the rather convenient phrase "It made me who I am."
So in all fairness we could say that if someone is a serial killer
it was something in his past that made him that way. So no regrets
about it, right?

If I am not a prince it is only because I was not raised by a king.

Those who raised me and those who I have met along the way made me
who I am today. Had I been raised different, perhaps in a more
wealthy family, I would have turned out different.
If it weren't for this time with my friends I would never have
started smoking, or drinking, or doing drugs. But peer pressure
changed who I am.
There are even some people out their who actually believe that if
they get a strong and highly intelligent mate their genetics will
insure that their child is strong and intelligent.
It would seem that when it comes to forging our identity in this
light we don't have much say in the matter at all because "we had no
choice."
Some people do only what they are told or what they are pressured
into. There are some people who can down right be talked into some
of the most disgusting acts of stupidity just because they do not
have the willpower or self worth to tell them "I don't want to!"
On the other side you have people who think they know what is best
for everyone else. And we see the argument arise between
generations. "I'm older. I have more experience. I have done it and
it does not work. Your not doing anything I didn't do." bla bla bla.
The same people who say these things usually have a hard time doing
their 5th graders math homework. Yet they claim the title of wisdom.
You have those who go out and take what they want from someone with
no thought what so ever about the person they are taking it from.
Theft, rape, murders, and damn near every other half intelligent law
we have come up with was made to punish the takers. It does nothing
to stop them at all. But it damn sure punishes them all right! Laws
would not be any good if people didn't break them. And if we had no
laws we would have no criminals. The law does not protect people. It
gives them revenge.
People don't think for themselves. They play on outside influences
and never really spend much time in their own heads minding their
own business. Puppets and masters called "society". Good thing I am
not a social worker.

The biggest issue in this is when we have those who say, "It's not
my fault, he/she made me who I am."

You mean to say that you are messed up in the head and walk around
an emotional train wreck because of someone else? You're a thief,
alcoholic, drug addict, or prostitute because someone else made you
that way? And yet you still think for yourself and have your own
identity. Now there is a contradiction.
If you subscribe to the thought that "You have no choice" or "They
made you who you are" then somewhere along the way you lost your
free will and with that you're worth.
If you don't like who you are, you can change it. And no matter what
your justifications and minimization's you are and always have been
responsible for the decisions YOU make. That is why the laws punish
the people who commit the crimes and not the people who made the
criminals who they are.
Now on the other side I do agree that whom we meet along the way
changes us. Who would I be if I had not met the people I did along
the way who forced me into thinking? Who would I be if someone did
not step in to help my somewhere in the past?
We do learn from each other and the acquisition of that knowledge
may change our actions. But when it comes to our decisions there is
a difference between what you have learned and what you will do with
it. Making those decisions is all on you. Don't lay blame on someone
in your past or someone right in front of you telling you to do
something you don't feel comfortable with. When it comes to
decisions there is a reasonable doubt that anyone is making them but
you.


Angel Snowden -2006