Rioting and Responsibility

Daniel M. Kolkey (“When the Self Comes First, We All Suffer,” Column Right, May 25) presses all the tired (but true) buttons about individual responsibility, but he leaves out of the discussion the individual responsibility of those people who have brought the nation to its present economic condition.

Where is the mention of the individual responsibility of the corporate and political fat cats?

We’ve been saying for many years that the welfare system needs adjustment; where is the specific plan to fix the system? We know that a person loses benefits and thereby has a lowered standard of living under certain conditions; why hasn’t that adjustment been made?

The political right has held the White House for 11 years. Where has the emphasis been? On assisting the poor to a more equitable, responsible life, or on assisting the wealthy to amass more wealth?

Individual responsibility rests with Kolkey and his ilk as well as with the looters. Antisocial behavior is a very wide umbrella.

GENE R. TOUCHET

Los Angeles