Little innocent mistakes happen all the time. They are a common, everyday fact of life. But it&8217;s how we learn from and own up to those mistakes that tells to our character.

Think about it.

From our first months of life, mistakes happen &8212; things that we&8217;d really like to keep in our grasp fall to the floor, pacifiers fall out of our mouths and we make &8220;accidents&8221; sometimes to the displeasure of the adult nostrils nearby.

As babies, however, we have excuses and it&8217;s OK to cry and thrown a fit when we make boo-boos.

But as adults we&8217;re supposed to be big boys and big girls. We&8217;re supposed to be tough and we&8217;re supposed to be responsible.

That responsibility also comes with an obligation to admit one&8217;s errors and pay the consequences.

Someone in the City of Natchez screwed up when city crews dumped construction waste illegally along the edge of the Saint Catherine Creek near the water treatment plant.

The waste came from the demolition of two brick buildings on Canal Street that were removed to make way for a new convention center hotel. The debris violated state environmental laws and the city should have known better.

Will the City receive a fine from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality? It should.

We&8217;re all human, but sometimes government forgets it too is obligated to abide by the same laws that Joe Citizen must follow.