American culture is a culture of fixing blame -- fixing blame on others. Whenever the President of our land slips a bit the media ask, "Why? Who is to blame?" When our favorite sports team loses, the question is asked, "Why? Who is to blame?" And on and on it goes. We are anxious to fix the blame somewhere. This "blame" culture may nowhere be so clearly seen as in the mountain of court cases brought in our land. It's getting to the point that when anything wrong happens to anyone the first thought is to go to court in order to assign the blame to someone else.

There lives a man whose name is J. B. J. B. is a lot like an Old Testament character named Job. J. B. protests his innocence when anything goes wrong. His method of choice for assigning blame is a lawsuit. J. B. is a rugged, athletic man. He is very proud of his body. He boasts of his feats of strength. So when the local YMCA advertised a "Refrigerator Race" J. B. signed up immediately. In this kind of race a refrigerator is strapped to your back. The one who can move ten yards the most quickly with a refrigerator on his back wins the race. This was just the kind of stuff that J. B. loved. He strapped on the refrigerator and away he went. And then the strap broke. Down came J. B., refrigerator, and all. His back was hurt to be sure. But his pride was hurt more than his back.

"Who is to blame?" J. B. thought. His answer: The company that made the strap. What to do? He thought it over and said, "I'll sue." He sued the strap company for one million dollars. They were to blame. He was innocent. He sued and he won! The blame was not his!

On another occasion J. B.'s equally physical son crashed the seat of a swing into the head of another young man. There was brain damage to the other boy. What was more important to J. B., however, was the damage to his own reputation. "Who is to blame?" J. B. thought. His answer: The company that made the wooden swing seat. What to do? He thought it over and he said, "I'll sue." He sued the company that made the swing seat for making a seat that could hurt someone. They were to blame. He was innocent. He sued and he won! Two million dollars this time! The blame was not his!

J. B. lived in suburbia. He took pride in his house and his yard. One day while he was out working in his yard he noticed that his neighbor, Mike, was also working on his yard. They each paused for a bit in their work and talked over the hedge. They began discussing the fact that the hedge between them needed trimming. Since Mike was standing with his lawn mower, J. B. suggested that they hold the lawn mower up by its four wheels, two men on each side of the hedge, and use the lawn mower as a hedge clipper. Great idea! And it worked -- for a while. Then J. B. stepped into a hole, lost his balance and down he went with the mower on top of him. His hand was badly cut.

As always, J. B.'s first thought was, "Who is to blame?" It just couldn't be his fault. It couldn't be his stupidity. The last place he would think of looking to assign blame was to himself. Who is to blame? The lawn mower company, of course. Nowhere in their directions did they indicate that this machine should not be used as a hedge clipper. What to do? He thought it over and he said, "I'll sue." And sue he did. The lawn mower company was to blame. The court agreed. He was innocent. The blame was not his!

P.S. The legal facts in this parable are true!"