Quotes About Responsibility

was the crying voice from the grave that said, 'Garvey, we have suffered for 250 years for your day and for your time; we expect something from you at this hour.'"16

No Christian leader – no leader of any kind – is immune from the dangers of misuse of power and position.

It is no good pretending that as Christian leaders we have little or no power. We do. Power and power differentials are givens in leadership. Being realistic about this is essential if we are to grasp how we affect others. We need to be as insightful as possible if we want to ensure that we use our power and authority in right and godly ways.

Authority, used correctly, is a deeply positive, nurturing thing.

Churches that lack accountability structures for leaders (or where leaders have dismantled them) are powerless when things go wrong. Not only are they driving without a seatbelt, they have cut the brakes and may be hurtling towards a cliff.

All the way back to Genesis 3 we can trace twin instincts. On one hand the human heart has been hard-wired to seek solitary, authoritarian power and safety. On the other, there is a deep-seated responsibility-abdicating acquiescence to ungodly leaders or groups.

In the military, if we don't know something, we say we don't know and proceed to shut up until we do. Some highly paid charlatans in the media think it's absolutely fine to take a wild guess at the truth and then tell a couple of million people it's cast-iron fact, just in case they might be right...I hope they're proud of themselves, because they nearly broke my mom's heart....

We all have our crosses to bear. We carry them heavily, out of love for our brothers in arms. But sometimes you have to let go of the idea that anyone down here is in control.

these are the problems of the modern U.S. combat soldier, the constant worry about overstepping the mark and an American media that delights in trying to knock us down. Which we have done nothing to deserve. Except, perhaps, love our country and everything it stands for.

My heart dropped directly into my stomach. And I cursed those fucking goatherds to hell, and myself for not executing them when every military codebook ever written had taught me otherwise. Not to mention my own raging instincts, which had told me to go with Axe and execute them. And let the liberals go to hell in a mule cart, and take with them all of their fucking know-nothing rules of etiquette in war and human rights and whatever other bullshit makes 'em happy.

But these are the problems of the modern U.S. combat soldier, the constant worry about overstepping the mark and an American media that delights in trying to knock us down. Which we have done nothing to deserve. Except, perhaps, love our country and everything it stands for.

1. Consider all weapons to be loaded at all times. 2. Never point a weapon at anything you do not want to put a bullet through. 3. Never put your finger on the trigger unless you want to shoot. 4. Know your target and what's behind it.

Our duty is to serve the mission, and if we're not doing that, then we have no right to call what we do service.

And if the liberal media and political community cannot accept that sometimes the wrong people get killed in war, then I can only suggest they first grow up and then serve a short stint up in the Hindu Kush.

I had eight magazines of 5.56mm bullets and ChemLights. As team lead, I carried flares, an extra radio, and an extra antenna stuffed in a cargo pocket. I had a computer and a medical pack containing QuikClot, bandages, needles, and tourniquets. I had water and food, too. I weighed about 250 pounds without my gear, and more than 325 with it. With every step I took, I could feel my spine compressing like a shock absorber.

I have only one piece of advice for what it's worth: if you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place.

And he simply would not tolerate any other high-ranking officer, commissioned or noncommissioned, reaming out one of his guys. He

I'm trained in weapons, demolition, and unarmed combat. I'm a sniper, and I'm the platoon medic. But most of all, I'm an American.

if you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place.

Don't promise twice what you can do at once.

Siquid desit in annum, uti paretur: quae supersint, ut veneant: quae opus sint locato, locentur: quae opera fieri velit et quae locari velit, uti imperet et ea scripta relinquat... Patrem familias vendacem, non emacem esse oportet.

For as fashionable as cynicism always was, the truth was that when it came to basic human responsibility, people rose to the challenge. Pretty much always. As many times as Hell had been created, history stood as indisputable proof that the mass of humanity was good. People built more than they burned, created more than they destroyed, not by a little but by a massive surplus. To know it, all you needed to remember was that we had started as chimpanzees—and then look around.

One of the weird things about being in a resistance movement was that it wasn't like you could hire janitors, so when it came to cleaning, there was a duty roster.

Cooper shook his head. "The things we do for our children." Natalie managed a thin, tight smile. "When do you have to go?" "Soon. I want to see the kids first." "Do you want to… you could stay. The night.