To the Editor:

Signs are important indicators that help us function in every part of our daily lives.

Directions, speed limits, dangers, recommendations are all signage we recognize. We read signs and consider the information relayed in our decision-making process on how we will react.

Sometimes we have the luxury to ponder what or how we should react, and sometimes we need to react immediately in order to secure our own safety. Using this analogy in the modern information age, we are bombarded constantly with information that we should consider as “signs.”

Federal debt, public unions, Medicare and Medicaid, no fly zones, weather updates, celebrity antics and the like are signs with information we run through our personal central processing unit.

We must decide which need immediate action and which can wait. If we feel that we need to learn more on the topic then we educate ourselves on such before making a decision.

Signs today show us that our nation is facing an uncertain future due to a mentality that has become ingrained in society — entitlement. We deserve this, or we have a right to that.

While our rights are clearly defined in the U.S. Constitution and its amendments thereof it has become habit and trend to tweak and twist its words until somehow new rights and entitlements are “invented.” This is the result when personal responsibility is shirked and the problem becomes someone else’s.

The basic unit of society is family, and we should set principles and responsibilities clearly from childhood. In the last 50 to 60 years as a nation, we have lost our abilities in this area.

Can you see it?

Do you read the signs?

We do not have an eternity to make a decision as we need to recognize this danger for what it is. We need to ensure we take personal responsibility in our own lives, and elect and hold those in public office accountable for their responsibilities as defined in our Constitution.

Jonathan E. Varnell
Franklin