Four Wisconsin stories have made the national news this past week. Number 1: (and in no particular order) Governor Walker's 2016 presidential primary campaign. Number 2: the passage of right to work legislation by the legislature and the governor's signature on the same. Number 3: the death of T. Robinson, a 19-year old Madison resident. And number 4: the Slenderman homicide case where the two accused 12-year olds are being charged as adults. (Wisconsin law states that anyone age 10 or older accused of a serious crime is to be charged as an adult. The court can be petitioned to return the case to juvenile court. Those petitions, as in this case, are often not successful.)

I have a sense that there is a common thread to these four stories, but I am at a loss to put it into words. Here is my attempt to do just that: when it comes to individual responsibility the state will hold its citizens to that standard to the nth degree even when the citizen in question is a pre-teen 12-year old or a troubled 19-year old young adult. Employees are to be free of supposedly onerous union dues and left without a workplace advocate. Are we not making a mockery of individual responsibility?