By PAUL FARBER
Rantoul Press columnist

In this edition I would like to once again touch on accountability.

As citizens we have to be accountable for our community so that it will move forward and prosper.

That means all of us have to be accountable for our community.

I have included the following on accountability from Eric Harvey and Alexander Lucia,  “Walking the Talk Together.”

You know, one of the really nice things about our world is that it’s full of people who have all kinds of good intentions, including the desire to do the right thing … the desire to walk the talk.

But intending or wanting to do and actually doing aren’t the same. The difference is action. And the thing that helps ensure action happens is accountability.

Remember when you were in your early teens? We do. We could hardly wait to become adults because we thought it would mean we could do whatever we wanted.

Well, we became adults (at least age-wise), and we found it meant something much different: We were responsible for ourselves — we were accountable for our actions. We still are, and always will be.

Certainly, each of us has to answer to the external authorities in our lives like the government, our bosses and the “higher authority” that exists for many of us.

But equally (if not more) important, we need to answer to ourselves. And when it comes to doing our part to bring community values to life, that means asking “I” questions like the following.

What am I doing that’s out of sync with my community values, and what changes will I make?

What in-sync things am I doing now that I will do even more of in the future?

How am I encouraging, supporting and recognizing others’ efforts to walk the talk?

What am I doing to continually remind myself and others that behaviors speak louder than words?

Personal accountability is the essence of being a responsible adult. It’s the essence of being a successful person. And it truly is the essence for any community.

Accountability is the responsibility of all for the well-being of our community. None of us can take the attitude that we are above accountability or that it is someone else’s problem.

We have to take pride and support one another in our community as well as recognize that we have leaders in the community who need you to stand with them to better Rantoul.

Such team effort will indeed prosper our community.

In closing I leave you with the following thoughts. If it is to be, it is up to me. We judge ourselves by our beliefs and intentions, but others judge us by our behaviors and actions.

“We have a Bill of Rights.” “What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities.” — Bill Maher

And finally, “The large print giveth, but the small print taketh away.” — Tom Waite.

What, no baseball quotes? No, they are all headed for spring training. But they will be ready to go in the March edition.

Paul Farber is chief of the Rantoul Police Department.