By Nathan Barton

“Life’s unfair… and then you die,” is a saying that you don’t hear much.  Especially not in the Fifty States of the 21st Century.

Neither is another once-commonly accepted concept: you are responsible for the results of your actions.

For some reason, in going through the news on-line this morning, an old story from April 2017 popped up. The Blaze reported on a bad situation which went down in Wagoner County near Tulsa, Oklahoma, in March 2017, nearly three years ago.

Three men, wearing black with black masks, carrying brass knuckles and at least one knife, broke into a house. There, they confronted the homeowner’s 23-year-old son, who shot all three of them in the house with an AR-15.  All three died on the scene.  Their getaway driver, who admitted to planning the burglary, was unharmed and later turned herself into police. She was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of burglary. (I don’t know if she was convicted or not.)

But now for the interesting part.  First, all three of these men, these burglars, were teens: sixteen, seventeen and eighteen.  (Their driver is 21.) I call them men, not juveniles nor juvenile delinquents, because they were acting as (evil) men. The man who shot and killed them, defending his home and his parent(s), could not tell how old they were or were not.  All he could see what a clear and present threat, in the form of the knuckles and knives.  Both of which could and have killed people.  With three to one odds, and clearly indicating their evil intent by their disguises.

The 71-year-old grandfather of one of the dead believed the death was unjustified because the homeowner’s AR15 gave him an unfair advantage over the three burglars. Speaking to KTUL, the grandfather acknowledged that breaking into a house was “stupid,” but death was not the appropriate consequence. “What these three boys did was stupid. They knew they could be punished for it but they did not deserve to die. “Brass knuckles against an AR-15? C’mon. Who was afraid for their life?”

Readers will no doubt see the many errors in these remarks. Especially from someone with seven decades of experience.  Someone who should know better.

But who does not.

Surely he should know that actions have consequences.  Decisions result in actions, and bad decisions result in bad results. Those three dead men (or boys) made some very bad decisions, took some really stupid actions, and were killed for their stupidity.  Even if their relatives (and friends) can’t understand why life isn’t fair, and why government (or someone else) should take actions to remove all risk from life.  As if they could.

So why do I bring this up, nearly three years later?

Because it is such a perfect example of something we see every day.  Not just in the news, but in our daily lives. You do something stupid (or something that people claim is stupid or bad) years ago, and suddenly someone finds out and publicizes what you did.  And suddenly, you find yourself without a job, or with your reputation destroyed.  Or even in court. Or with someone (literally) gunning for you. We could spend a thousand words just listing the well-known names who have made that mistake in recent months. (For example, how Pelosi and Schumer whinged and demanded equal time for Trump’s Tuesday night televised speech, claiming it was “not fair.”)

Actions have consequences.  Life is unfair.  Sometimes we do not understand what the consequences of our actions can be.

People can survive forgetting that now and then.  If they are blessed by providence (have the good luck) to avoid them.  But in the long run, things catch up with us.  And we pay the price for what we do.

If we truly love and want liberty for ourselves, our family, our friends, and our community, we cannot forget that actions have consequences.  And many times, those consequences cannot be avoided.

But too many people: voters, politicians, business controllers, and more, think that they (and we) CAN avoid responsibility for what we do. That there will always be some way to sidestep and avoid the bad things that can happen when we make (or support) stupid decisions.