Dan Quayle on the Cultural Elite

Included in much of the recent Quayle discourse on a return to traditional values has been the urgent cry for greater individual responsibility. Yet it seems that this focus on individual as opposed to collective responsibility only acts to reinforce many of our societal ills.

Implicit in this cry for greater individual responsibility is the notion that the poor are somehow solely responsible for their poverty; that the disabled have actively contributed to their disabilities; and that the objects of discrimination are in fact culpable for their plight as well.

As we engage in this contemporary discussion of “traditional moral values,” perhaps the focus should shift away from the individual’s responsibility to himself to our collective responsibility to better the communities in which we live. If there is one lesson to be learned from the Reagan Revolution, it is surely that a rising tide does not lift all ships. Should not community involvement and compassion for others be the cry for our new moral revolution? Perhaps a new morality can extend beyond the family unit, and back to the community where social responsibility may usurp the individual-centered morality of the prior and current eras.

KAREN KAUFMANN, Brentwood