Ah...the joys of parenthood. I was hoping I wouldn't have to encourage my kids to clean their rooms as often as my parents encouraged me to do the same when I was my kids' age.

So much for that.

Even though my kids need seemingly perpetual encouragement to clean their rooms, I can't help but think of a lesson President Reagan taught a young man in 1984 - the year, not the Orwell novel.

In 2003, Time Magazine published a letter from President Reagan to young Andy Smith of Irmo, South Carolina. The young Mr. Smith wrote to Washington asking President Reagan for federal funds to hire a crew in order to clean his room because his mother declared his room to be a disaster.

You already noticed the first word of the title is in all caps. There's a good reason for that.

Whenever I think of personal responsibility when it comes to health care, ethics, morals, and the like, the word, "personal," to me, has a double entendre when linked with "responsibility."

I won't waste time on how we are responsible for our own actions and lives. Besides, CouleeConservatives.com regulars have a good grasp of being responsible for one's own actions. That takes care of the first meaning of "personal".