A Leadership Vacuum
A Leadership Vacuum
[Editor: Here’s a small discussion about Leadership from two of our bloggers, Veritas and Christy Cole, that we wanted to highlight. Definitely deserving of more thought and attention...]
~Veritas~
So here's something I was thinking about this morning...why is it that Katrina has exposed a complete vacuum of leadership among politicians of all stripes, at all levels?
I have heard a lot of griping but that is not leadership.
Someone should have stepped forward and stated that out of this grisly disaster, there were opportunities for hope.
Someone should have welcomed displaced citizens into their home, and then encouraged other Americans across the country to do the same.
Someone should have authorized (or lobbied for) public-private partnerships that would have provided displaced citizens with temporary housing in desirable communities across the nation.
Someone should have said that this was an opportunity for all Americans to reach out and open their homes and hearts and pocketbooks to welcome in their brothers and sisters from New Orleans and Gulfport and Biloxi.
Someone should have said that we had an opportunity rarely presented in our nation, for people trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, and hopelessness to be welcomed into the open arms of the American dream, if only for a year until they insist on returning and rebuilding.
Someone should have taken the opportunity to quickly establish a visible chain of command from the local level to the federal level that ensured every city had a disaster plan and every plan accounted for the poor.
Someone should have quickly stated that every city would be required to submit a revised disaster plan once a year and to test their plan once a year tabletop, once every three years full-scale.
Someone should have reached out to ASPCA, PETA, etc to develop plans for pet shelters and pet evacuations in emergencies.
Someone should have reached out to car manufacturers and created public-private partnerships to ensure every person needing a ride out of a city could get one...even if it was in a brand-new car (the cars would be damaged and written off as losses anyway).
Someone should have reached out to grocery stores to make plans for disasters that involved free access to their abandoned goods (again would have been written off as a loss) for those in need.
Someone should have made noise about price gouging for oil products, no-bid contracts to government insiders, the bankruptcy laws, and the trumping of wage-labor laws.
Someone should have allowed the media full access...and placed the onus firmly upon them to fairly and accurately report what they saw, and to give the deceased all due respect.
Someone should have, above all, sworn that never again would a country who proclaims to welcome the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free - never again would this country abandon those very people...the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the jobless...that have been our ancestors, that have made us why we are great today.
Where is this person?
Where are not only our President and Vice-President, but where are our Senators, our Representatives, our Governors, our Mayors? Where is the man or woman who can truly lead and not just complain?
I have seen more leadership in the past two weeks from rock stars and sports figures than from politicians of any party.
Where are the leaders of our country?
~Veritas~
~ Christy Cole~
The vacuum is not surprising. The issues defining this one simply scare the hell out of every politician in the country.
The reason that vacuum has happened is simple. Fear of true emotion.
We have always been taught that our politics is above passion, that we get elections stolen so what we move on and try to deal. We come together and sell our collective soul to the devil of political correctness.
We forget to scream. They forget to hear us.
Maybe some of them CAN ACTUALLY empathize with the stricken. But even if they do God help them for saying so.
For a moment picture Martin Luther King, now imagine him with no passion. No SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Not only did he tell the truth but he did so in a way they COULD NOT FIGHT.
To 'them' he HAD to die because they could not hide the fact his words of truth, longing, and hope… COMPLETELY neutered them.
One of the more interesting character traits all great generals in history shared is the ability to tell his men they would die at his command that day, and make them believe it was poetry.
Political correctness is an empty phrase that MEANS nothing. Hunger ALWAYS burns.
The democrats did EVERYONE a great disservice by buying into the lie that somehow the passion of simple truths did not belong in the halls of power.
When most people speak of our founding fathers they almost always speak of men of great dignity. I agree, they WERE very PROUD men, most WANTED to do the right thing, BUT dignified...???
In our first congressional activities most Americans simply forget how very undignified it was. Did you know for example they BANNED walking sticks in Congress because the men at the height of their passion would use them to bash one another. I suppose they say dignified because it is comfortable, and does not remind us that WIDE OPEN ROBUST DEBATE was how we got here in the first place. Wide open robust debate IS freedom.
If you think George Washington was DIGNIFIED imagine that moment, as a general, watching his army fall apart… Imagine that moment he ordered their DECIMATION...
Decimation...Line Up. Count Off Down To Ten. All Tens Step Out. Threes Are ORDERED to Shoot The Tens. Could he have done that with no feeling??
When he watched them freeze to death with nothing but their shoes to eat and horrifically outnumbered by the bloody Red Coats, do you think he EVER for a moment considered approaching it WITHOUT frantic emotion.??
It did not make him weak to be a passionate man. In fact, it made him immortal. He WAS one HELL of a man. Even his enemies such as Jefferson, were great men full of deep wells of forethought and reflection.
The way our 'professional politicians' speak to us is a disgrace. They pretend using gentle words for acts such as genocide, murder, TREASON will make us all calm down and indeed just get over it.
The time for getting OVER IT is done. The time for polite discussion is OVER.
The women and children left to eat their boots in the convention center and Super Dome were NOT soldiers fighting for our freedom. They were AMERICANS left to starve to death in the face of a society that wanted to believe true hunger does not hurt like hell. That words like 'abandonment' do not apply.
When a leader does come forward with the TRUE fire of PASSION in their voice, it will be he that we will follow.
But so far, they are all still trying to be OH so politically correct. And it is up to us to bring forth our own who are NOT afraid to say the things that need to be said. Tell them to get mad, and stay that way.
And buy a walking stick, maybe two.
~ Christy Cole~
Link Here
[Editor: Here’s a small discussion about Leadership from two of our bloggers, Veritas and Christy Cole, that we wanted to highlight. Definitely deserving of more thought and attention...]
~Veritas~
So here's something I was thinking about this morning...why is it that Katrina has exposed a complete vacuum of leadership among politicians of all stripes, at all levels?
I have heard a lot of griping but that is not leadership.
Someone should have stepped forward and stated that out of this grisly disaster, there were opportunities for hope.
Someone should have welcomed displaced citizens into their home, and then encouraged other Americans across the country to do the same.
Someone should have authorized (or lobbied for) public-private partnerships that would have provided displaced citizens with temporary housing in desirable communities across the nation.
Someone should have said that this was an opportunity for all Americans to reach out and open their homes and hearts and pocketbooks to welcome in their brothers and sisters from New Orleans and Gulfport and Biloxi.
Someone should have said that we had an opportunity rarely presented in our nation, for people trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, and hopelessness to be welcomed into the open arms of the American dream, if only for a year until they insist on returning and rebuilding.
Someone should have taken the opportunity to quickly establish a visible chain of command from the local level to the federal level that ensured every city had a disaster plan and every plan accounted for the poor.
Someone should have quickly stated that every city would be required to submit a revised disaster plan once a year and to test their plan once a year tabletop, once every three years full-scale.
Someone should have reached out to ASPCA, PETA, etc to develop plans for pet shelters and pet evacuations in emergencies.
Someone should have reached out to car manufacturers and created public-private partnerships to ensure every person needing a ride out of a city could get one...even if it was in a brand-new car (the cars would be damaged and written off as losses anyway).
Someone should have reached out to grocery stores to make plans for disasters that involved free access to their abandoned goods (again would have been written off as a loss) for those in need.
Someone should have made noise about price gouging for oil products, no-bid contracts to government insiders, the bankruptcy laws, and the trumping of wage-labor laws.
Someone should have allowed the media full access...and placed the onus firmly upon them to fairly and accurately report what they saw, and to give the deceased all due respect.
Someone should have, above all, sworn that never again would a country who proclaims to welcome the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free - never again would this country abandon those very people...the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the jobless...that have been our ancestors, that have made us why we are great today.
Where is this person?
Where are not only our President and Vice-President, but where are our Senators, our Representatives, our Governors, our Mayors? Where is the man or woman who can truly lead and not just complain?
I have seen more leadership in the past two weeks from rock stars and sports figures than from politicians of any party.
Where are the leaders of our country?
~Veritas~
~ Christy Cole~
The vacuum is not surprising. The issues defining this one simply scare the hell out of every politician in the country.
The reason that vacuum has happened is simple. Fear of true emotion.
We have always been taught that our politics is above passion, that we get elections stolen so what we move on and try to deal. We come together and sell our collective soul to the devil of political correctness.
We forget to scream. They forget to hear us.
Maybe some of them CAN ACTUALLY empathize with the stricken. But even if they do God help them for saying so.
For a moment picture Martin Luther King, now imagine him with no passion. No SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Not only did he tell the truth but he did so in a way they COULD NOT FIGHT.
To 'them' he HAD to die because they could not hide the fact his words of truth, longing, and hope… COMPLETELY neutered them.
One of the more interesting character traits all great generals in history shared is the ability to tell his men they would die at his command that day, and make them believe it was poetry.
Political correctness is an empty phrase that MEANS nothing. Hunger ALWAYS burns.
The democrats did EVERYONE a great disservice by buying into the lie that somehow the passion of simple truths did not belong in the halls of power.
When most people speak of our founding fathers they almost always speak of men of great dignity. I agree, they WERE very PROUD men, most WANTED to do the right thing, BUT dignified...???
In our first congressional activities most Americans simply forget how very undignified it was. Did you know for example they BANNED walking sticks in Congress because the men at the height of their passion would use them to bash one another. I suppose they say dignified because it is comfortable, and does not remind us that WIDE OPEN ROBUST DEBATE was how we got here in the first place. Wide open robust debate IS freedom.
If you think George Washington was DIGNIFIED imagine that moment, as a general, watching his army fall apart… Imagine that moment he ordered their DECIMATION...
Decimation...Line Up. Count Off Down To Ten. All Tens Step Out. Threes Are ORDERED to Shoot The Tens. Could he have done that with no feeling??
When he watched them freeze to death with nothing but their shoes to eat and horrifically outnumbered by the bloody Red Coats, do you think he EVER for a moment considered approaching it WITHOUT frantic emotion.??
It did not make him weak to be a passionate man. In fact, it made him immortal. He WAS one HELL of a man. Even his enemies such as Jefferson, were great men full of deep wells of forethought and reflection.
The way our 'professional politicians' speak to us is a disgrace. They pretend using gentle words for acts such as genocide, murder, TREASON will make us all calm down and indeed just get over it.
The time for getting OVER IT is done. The time for polite discussion is OVER.
The women and children left to eat their boots in the convention center and Super Dome were NOT soldiers fighting for our freedom. They were AMERICANS left to starve to death in the face of a society that wanted to believe true hunger does not hurt like hell. That words like 'abandonment' do not apply.
When a leader does come forward with the TRUE fire of PASSION in their voice, it will be he that we will follow.
But so far, they are all still trying to be OH so politically correct. And it is up to us to bring forth our own who are NOT afraid to say the things that need to be said. Tell them to get mad, and stay that way.
And buy a walking stick, maybe two.
~ Christy Cole~
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 5:04 PM
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