Vain Jangling
Pay your fair share.

Perhaps one recognizes this as a phrase often used in relation to paying taxes, and more specifically in regards to those some may consider the wealthy or more wealthy. Basically, one set of persons deciding the “fair share” of another set of persons. Even if the term “everyone” is sometimes used.
(As in: Everyone pays their fair share.)

However, nowadays, “pay your fair share” takes on a whole different meaning. Thank you for “paying your fair share of your taxes” and thank you for “paying your fair share of your student loans”, but now we need you to “pay your fair share” of someone else’s debt.

True, you have been paying your taxes and worked diligently to pay off your student loans (maybe even still paying them off), but it is only fair that others reap the benefit of having “up to $10,000” (or more) reduced from their student loans. A way to “give back”, to “pay it forward”, right?

What has happened to Personal Responsibility? We can have discussions on the costs of higher education. We can have discussions on grants and other helps for lower income persons. However, personal responsibility cannot be removed or glossed over in such talks. It simply isn’t fair and the debt isn’t being shared, because those who made the choice are not being required to pay (the portion given to others to reimburse).

Imagine if the plan was based on grades, educational performance. Similar to how scholarships and tuition assistance currently works for those who achieve academic excellence in high school. That would give incentive, a reward. Simply passing on someone’s debt (whether school, home, car, etc.) to another (especially when they have and are paying their own debt) is merely vain jangling, creating yet another means for some to have an “owed” mentality instead of personal responsibility.

Vain Jangling
Can you provide the definition for the word ‘woman’?
Not in this context, I’m not a biologist.

How have we come to a point in time when we can no longer define simple terms as male and female, man and woman? We are not merely talking about a group of uninformed, uneducated persons, but a society which has observed (been taught and acknowledged) for hundreds (even thousands) of years that we come into this world as either a boy or a girl.

We have been warned to trust the science in relation to a pandemic, while being told to ignore (reject) the science of biology. As if we all need to be a biologist to know the definition of female, woman, girl. I am sure there is a dictionary or encyclopedia (printed before 2020) that would explain it clearly, effectively.

If one does not know the difference between a man and a woman, perhaps they should not be in a leadership or teaching role. Context does not define or redefine a term, simply because we want it to or feel it should. Nor should arguments, laws, or judges’ decisions. That is mere vain jangling. We know the (established, predefined) difference and we should not be afraid to speak the truth.

Vain Jangling
The buck stops with me.

This statement always sounds good. Someone standing up, in humble admittance, declaring, “I take full responsibility.” In contrast to one easily playing the blame game, allowing the criticism and consequences to shift to another, or, most often, to roll down rank to those most often in the trenches, usually just following the lead, direction, and commands of those appointed over them.

However, too often, such sentiment is filled with mere vain jangling. Meaning, it is words which lack substance. At least, any personal, genuine substance. This is evident when one comes across as defensive, evasive, wants to quickly move past the issue, finds ways to shift some (if not most) of the blame elsewhere (away from themselves), or even seems to hint at reasons as to why they were (at least in part) actually justified in their decisions (even if it did not go as planned).

Choices have consequences. But no one usually gets to decide the consequences. They come about both directly and indirectly to our actions or inactions, along with numerous variables one cannot possibly account for. Therefore, “The buck stops with me,” means little to those who are forced to live through (or die because of) someone else’s choices.

What are the consequences for the one who supposedly takes the blame, takes one for the team, takes the fall, for a poor choice? What are the consequences for those who know better, but refuse to stand up and let their voices be heard for the sake of right, moral, alternative, better judgement? Some do experience consequences by the loss of job or responsibilities, prison time, or worse. However, many remain right where they are, ready to move on to the next thing, in reality, having merely said, “Oops, my bad.”

“The buck stops with me,” is mere vain jangling if you’re bankrupt.