David and Roger were sitting at a stone bench playing a friendly game of chess. The temperature was a comfortable seventy-three degrees even though it was dead in the center of winter. David was contemplating the next move in the game when he noticed Roger looking up towards the heavens contemplating about something. David just took it that Roger was thinking about something that was more personal than social and went back to the game.

"I had a brother and today is his birthday." Roger said.

"Really, well why don't you see him?" David asked.

"He died two years ago." Roger answered.

"Oh! I'm sorry Roger."

"I am too. I haven't seen him in fifty years." Roger said with a lone tear rolling down his face.

David's eyes widened in disbelief that Roger hadn't seen his brother in fifty years and now would never see him ever again. Roger and his brother were now only together in memory and time and that is all that was guaranteed at that one moment. David looked to Roger with heavy eyes and asked the reason why. Roger took a deep breath and adjusted in his chair.

"Remember when people started to invest in the stock market back in the seventies?" Roger asked David.

David nodded in the universal sign of understanding.

"Well when my father died, he left his fortune to me and my younger brother. We decided to invest the money into the stock market. Me, I did research and found that the best investment would be in Visa Credit Cards, Holiday Barbie, and Apple Computers. I invested all my money in those companies. However, my brother wanted to invest all his money in eight-track tapes and vacuum tubes. He said that those two things were the future. I went with something with a lot of stability but he went with something that was making an impact at the time."

"Vacuum tubes and eight-track tapes don't exist anymore though."

"I know but that is what my brother wanted to invest all his money in. He never got the chance to though."

"Why is that?"

"Because I found out that since I was the older brother, I had seniority over his decision on where he wanted to invest his money. I naturally invested all his money into the investments I had. After he turned eighteen, he took priority over his money but after all that time, he had over fifty million in investments like I did."

"Well fifty million is a huge chunk of change and you did the right thing investing your brother's money for him."

"However, after my brother took priority over his money, he left and never talked to me ever since."

"But why? I don't understand! I mean you made a good decision for him."

"That is the problem. It was I who made his decision for him. I knew that if he invested his money into what he wanted, he would lose it all but it was his money for him to decide what to do with it. I did not respect his personal choice. People have to make their own choice and most importantly learn from them. However, it is always important that the choices people make are their choices and not anyone elses. It was right financially to invest in my investments but it was wrong for me to invest my brother's money in something he did not want in the first place. In the end, I was the one who lost something worth more than fifty million. If he invested his money where he wanted it in the first place, he would have lost his money but I would still have a brother. Now I never got the chance to say face to face to him that I am sorry."

David nodded as he made his next move in the chess game. Roger wiped the tears from his eyes and countered. Even though he lost his brother, Roger learned that only you are responsible for your choices not others and you cannot be directly responsible for the choices of others. Everyone is responsible for their own choices. Roger learned it a little too late but Roger looked at David, his grandson and hoped that his personal story would give his grandson an understanding that Roger knew was fading with time.

I decided to write this story of morality first because a lot of her issues today in the news, as well as in life, economics, ethics, and so on, are mostly surrounded by personal responsibility. I personally love my country but I do not like the direction it is going. Morgan Spurlock once said that the United States is land of the free, home of the brave, and loaded with some of the vainest people in the world. Vanity is usually justifying your views based on everyone else and one example of vanity is forcing your decisions and views onto others. Now there is a difference between explaining your view and forcing it with sheer pain and hurt. Good example is this dividing arguement when it comes to gay marriage and abortion. Most people think emotionally without any relativity so it is mostly irrational or self-stimulating. Abortion and gay marriage are personal choices and I find it confusing why other people force and argue their personal view on things that will never directly affect them. Even Beau from Fusion is guilty of justifying his view most directly when it comes to gay marriage. Too many people think on other people's decision but not their own personal choices. Eventually, there is a price to pay for vain choices and prejudices and it is seen in our society today. I hope that this story will help you understand that society is well only if our personal choices are good too. I will talk about this topic later on in another article.

Faith Saves All!

Alpha OUT!