The Responsibility Project

Liberty Mutual

Responsibility. What’s your policy?™

Blog

Provocative articles and stories about responsibility.

Parenting or Spying: Who’s Watching The Kids?

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (38)

If you electronically monitor every website your kids view, secretly read all their instant messages, filter their TV viewing, restrict their incoming and outgoing calls, and track their movements by GPS devices lurking in their backpacks and cell phones, are you parenting, or spying? Read full article »
Murder, He Wrote

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (9)

If you can’t kill a man, forgive him instead. That was the mind-boggling moral journey undertaken by a writer named David Holthouse, who, along the way, was forced to define and redefine his views of personal responsibility. Read full article »
Spinning: Out of Control in the Gym?

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (5)

Silence may be golden, but its recent pursuit in a New York City gym has set off a loud debate about entitlement and personal responsibility. It started in a spin class, when a 49-year-old Wall Street investment partner named Stuart Sugarman began yelling and grunting comments like “You go, girl!” and “Good burn!” as he cycled. Read full article »
Lighthouse

Posted on June 17, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (2)

Sometimes being responsible is a burden. A lopsided obligation. A lonely and thankless job. In the wonderfully animated short film Lighthouse, a grumpy lighthouse keeper makes sure that a safe little seaside town stays that way, by dutifully maintaining the beacon that shines above it. Read full article »
Having a Third Child

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (74)

Pamela Paul wants a third child. Writing in the Washington Post about her desire to have a “sprawling” family like the one she grew up in—“with seven brothers, real and step”—Paul mused about the high cost of raising a child these days: $204,060 according to a new federal estimate. Read full article »
Hit and Run: Without a Compass

Posted on June 9, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (10)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many are needed to describe the video of a man being struck by a hit-and-run driver and left to bleed unaided in the road, while numerous motorists and pedestrians casually maneuver around him and continue on their way? Read full article »
Dad Behind Bars

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (13)

A juvenile court judge in Ohio ordered 40 year-old Brian Gegner to make sure his high school dropout daughter earned her GED. But when teenaged Brittney didn’t hit the books hard enough to pass the test, the judge threw the book at Brian Gegner, ordering the father jailed because the daughter failed. Should a father be responsible when his 18 year-old daughter can’t do the math? Read full article »
Babies at Work

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (19)

There’s no question where babies come from. But there are plenty of questions about where they belong. In a bar? With a nanny? Starting a new life with someone else? Your recent comments here on other posts show there’s lots of spirited debate about responsibility when it comes to how and where we care for our kids. So, do babies belong at the office every day? Read full article »
Lost: Four Million Dollar Violin. Taxi!

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (0)

Sometimes a painful loss can bring a blissful reunion. But a happy ending was not what Grammy-nominated violinist Philippe Quint envisioned when he saw a taxi pull away from his New York City apartment with a four million dollar Stradivarius violin on loan to him still inside. Read full article »
Freeing an Innocent Man?

Posted on May 27, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (8)

If you had critical information that could free an innocent man from prison, would you reveal it to a judge, even if doing so was illegal? A North Carolina lawyer named Staples Hughes wrestled with that question for 22 years, while a man he believes is innocent of a double murder continued to serve two life sentences in prison. Read full article »