I think that Ebbie was referring to mankind, without regard to gender - or was it just us male-men you were talking about, Ebbie?

Or you could say, "Humankind has a history. Don't forget that. We all have to bear the burden of atrocities committed in the name of our rulers. It isn't quite as easy as sitting back and saying, 'It wasn't me, it was those other people!' People must hold other people to account before any positive change will happen."

Or, taken to a ridiculous extreme: "And my dog has to take responsibility for all the misdeeds done by his master..."

I suppose you could also say that pagans should be responsible for previous pagans who did human sacrifice, and atheists should be responsible for the actions of those godless Communists.

But yet, it's true. To the extent that we take pride in being part of a community or group or family, we must also take reponsibility for the misdeeds of that group and do what we can to correct our group's misdeeds. We all need to take responsibility for what's wrong with the world, because we're all interconnected. It's not just Christians who share common bonds and common responsibilities - we're all in a tightly interwoven web.

But leave my dog off the hook, willya? He's really a very nice dog. The only bad thing he ever did was when he was a pup, stealing 14 shoes from the doorsteps of various neighbors. He never brought a mate for any of the shoes, and we never found where the shoes came from. He's an old dog now, and we have new puppies to make mischief.

-Joe Offer-