Editorial: 2023 was not a banner year for taking responsibility

As 2023 draws to a close, here’s a suggestion for an early resolution for our leaders. Let’s make 2024 the year of shouldering responsibility.

One official we hope is listening is Brandon Johnson, who’s been anything but a “buck stops here” kind of mayor in 2023. The latest, and maybe worst, example of this was the mayor’s recent self-pitying finger-pointing at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after 5-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero died in the city’s overcrowded and unsanitary migrant shelter in Pilsen.

Feeling sorry for oneself isn’t a good look for any mayor. But Johnson is hardly the only politician who ought to turn over a new leaf in the coming year.

The former and current aldermen who, following the conviction of Ed Burke, complained primarily about the role of former Ald. Danny Solis in capturing Burke’s corrupt scheming on tape ought to take a look in the mirror as well.

Typical was former Ald. Roderick Sawyer, a friend of Burke’s, who memorably called Solis “a snake and a snitch.” He was merely one of a bevy of current and former aldermen apparently angrier at Solis than at Burke, who so nakedly betrayed the public trust.

Politics is no different than any other walk of life. Don’t say or do anything in your line of work that you wouldn’t be willing to be made public. That’s what accountability looks like, not whining about a “rat” in your midst.

We saw plenty of other examples outside of politics. Former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, who took little-to-no responsibility for a heinous hazing scandal on his team, quickly comes to mind.

So does NAACP Illinois President Teresa Haley, who after being caught on video likening migrants to “savages” first denied what everyone could see, then suggested someone had created the evidence using AI, and finally offered the classic non-apology apology to “anyone who may have been hurt.”

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She’s since been suspended from her post. And rightly so.

By the way, any of us who have resorted to the non-apology apology should either resolve herewith to offer real apologies to those we’ve hurt or just not bother.

We could go on. But the point is, all of us — but especially our leaders, to whom we look to set standards — would do well to make 2024 the year of accountability.

Of course, the ultimate whiner on our national scene is former President Donald Trump, who unfortunately seeks to return to the highest office in the land. We can’t think of anyone for whom this resolution is more appropriate.

We won’t hold our breath on that one.

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