Commentary We hear much about individual “rights” these days, but very little about personal responsibilities. That’s untenable. Our freedom to exercise the former cannot long exist without accepting our duty to fulfill the latter. Yes, failing to enforce rights leads to despotism. But the opposite can be almost as bad. Allowing people to openly shirk their moral obligations generates moral dissipation, cultural decadence, and precipitous social decline. In our time, the rights/responsibilities paradigm has become seriously unbalanced. A pronounced sense of “rights entitlement” has eclipsed the responsibilities side of the ledger, leading to serious consequences. For example, once thriving politically progressive municipalities—such as Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Portland—are buckling under serious crime waves and lifestyle degradation. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is a ready curative—if municipal leaders would only find the courage apply the lesson. Let’s call it a “tale of two cities” that contrasts the …