It is with some trepidation that I voice an opinion that might raise the anger of a few people on campus.

We have not had to read much about the pro-choice and pro-life movements during the past several months, and I don’t want to stir the waters to garner letter after letter that doesn’t change anyone’s mind, since most people are fairly set in their beliefs.

But I do have an opinion on a matter that touches the pro-life and pro-choice camps, and I guess I’ll just go for it.

After listening to an attorney explain to a judge why his client could not be tried for murder after a horrible car crash caused by the client, who was drunk, driving on the wrong side of the expressway, I began to wonder where we as Americans stand in this whole miasma of rights, responsibilities and our God-given right to choose.

Where do we draw the line when it comes to making choices?

Can I run through a stop sign 12 times before it really becomes a crime? Can I race through a crosswalk when pedestrians are present, simply because I have a right to make that decision? How many choices can I make that endanger, hurt or kill others before I become responsible for my actions?

The young man who drove while intoxicated down the wrong side of Interstate 69 ran head-on into an oncoming car and killed the driver.

His defense was that he was so drunk he could not be held responsible for a serious crime such as murder.

“It was the alcohol’s fault, not mine,” he said.

More and more, this has become the prevailing attitude among greater numbers of Americans.

We see it in television dramas, we hear it on talk shows, and we find it in every news broadcast. We have become people of choice, but those choices have begun to have severe ramifications for the rest of the population.

Attorneys with straight faces look at the television cameras and say, “My client made the wrong choice, but should not be held accountable.”

If we carry this to the abortion debate we find an interesting situation. We have a group of people on the pro-choice side who demand to be able to choose and control every aspect of their own bodies.

I will ride the fence and won’t voice an opinion in this arena.

I truly believe this is not an issue to be argued on the street corner. I will ask a question, though.

Since we as a nation have been forced into the dialogue of pro-choice or pro-life, we are made to endure demonstrations, vile language from both sides, unChristian behavior from Christians, and news broadcasts on abortion ad nausea.

My question revolves around choice: How many choices does an individual need before one decides upon that one “correct” choice?

Think back to running through the stop sign.

Shouldn’t I be ticketed for my first speedy blast through the stop sign? Or should I be given 12 more chances before I decide to actually stop? How many chances should I have?

When it comes to pro-choice, aren’t we speaking about many choices in most cases?

Please realize there are instances where abortion is completely and totally appropriate.

You know them as well as I do. We have all heard them before.

But in the majority of cases, aren’t we looking at situations where individuals, both male and female, made other choices long before abortion is contemplated?

In normal cases, no one ever has to get pregnant. We are all adult enough to know that. It is when those other choices are made that suddenly abortion rears its ugly head and demands to be heard.

I am not arguing for pro-choice or for pro-life. I am arguing for a state of affairs where individuals will foster a prevailing attitude that states you do not have a God-given right to do whatever you want for as long as you want, and then fall back on some old adage that says you have a right to make a choice.

The bottom-line truth is that you do have a right to make choices, but we fail to add the issue of responsibility to that premise.

You can’t keep making choices until a good one appears. You have to make the choice, face the consequences, and then move on to the next choice. Choices require responsibility, responsibility requires consequences. You cannot have one without the other.

This understanding is something we see too often completely lacking in too many who claim to be responsible Americans.

I guess I have grown tired of everyone falling back on a belief that we should be given the ability to make as many choices as we want, with no responsibility, until we get it right according to our beliefs.

We are facing an ever-growing set of disasters around the world that seem to revolve around the premise that every individual can do whatever he or she wants simply because as a human, I have been given the right to choose, and choosing does not carry any consequences.

It’s time to think about what we do before we do it, weigh the consequences, evaluate our responsibilities and then make logical choices that reflect upon our place in the existence of the entire world.

Craig Gunn is an academic specialist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.