Where are the leaders? Who will take us out of this mess? Even the best intentioned group, no matter how large, needs leaders. Where are they?
This person must be willing to sacrifice. Why? Real leaders do not just do what they do for themselves. They make decisions or set their country/state/municipality on a certain course because they have the welfare of the electorate in mind. This oftentimes means that leaders would rather go one way because it would benefit them personally, but they realize that to make that decision would consequently be worse for the majority of others. To make the right decision here, the leaders must be willing to sacrifice. Where are the great people today who are willing to sacrifice?
Our first President, George Washington, the Founder of our Nation, was a truly great man. His greatness stemmed not from exceptional athletic prowess nor his ability to thrill a crowd with his speeches. He was not great because of his prodigious intelligence, nor from his ability to make piles of money. He was a great man because he had a vision and risked everything—his honor, his money, his family, his very life—to accomplish that dream. He foresaw a nation free of tyranny; he foresaw a country that had enormous resources to be used and developed, he foresaw a country full of folks (not gentry) who were hard working and willing to risk everything they had for a small piece of land that the government could not dictate the use or disposal of. He worked tirelessly for decades to establish that dream, support that dream, and get out of the way of the development of that dream.
He did not want the job of President; he refused to be “crowned”; he wanted to go back to his farm and live his life. He eschewed fame and intensely desired anonymity. Yet, he could not turn his back when called upon to do his duty. He set multiple precedents to which modern politicians would do well to adhere. He designed the Presidency to be not a monarch’s throne but a leader’s platform. He designed the Presidency to be responsive to the PEOPLE and responsible for them, not dictatorial and authoritarian towards them.
Greatness, then, is not about what the person does individually as much as what he/she believes in and supports, fights for, and pursues, which then makes success and growth possible and easier for others. See, it is the what they do for others part that makes them great, not what they accumulate for themselves. That is what is missing in too many of the so-called leaders today. Nancy Pelosi would never sacrifice her own wants for the needs and desires of the masses.
The Bible tells us that if we can move mountains but have not love, our achievement is worthless. So if we can win Heisman trophies or Oscars and other awards, but we have not enriched the world by doing so, our achievements are worthless. If we are President of the United States and we ignore the people who elected us so that we can achieve an agenda we designed ourselves, what matter does it make in the long term other than the destruction of the true greatness that was once America—her people and their dreams?
So who is great in our world today? I cannot believe that any world leader of which I am aware could be classified so, especially not our President. His ambition to greatness is perhaps his largest stumbling block. He wants what he wants, not what we want. For that he will go down in history as a bully and a poor President. But, surely, there are some people out there who can see what needs to be done? Maybe they want to avoid the limelight. Maybe they have the ability to lead but would rather stay home and do their jobs and provide for and protect their families—just like George Washington did. We need these people to come forward now. We need to send the slovenly, selfish, and incompetent back home. We need to take back this country from those who are despoiling her and ruining her foundations. We need someone who will ask the people of this country what they want before trying to cram some Socialist/Communist agenda down our throats. We need someone who believes in the sanctity of human life. We need someone who will support programs to reward the core values of honesty, decency, and hard work in this nation instead of extolling those who lie, deceive, and punishing those who produce. We need a leader who does not simply set and agenda and follow it, but a leader who understands the country—its people—and works toward the betterment of the nation instead of merely his/her own personal desires.
We have lost something in my lifetime of what it means to be an American. We need to get it back. We need to be able to look at our flag and have pride. We need to regain our self-respect, and we need to be able to once again trust our state and national leadership. We must stop the public shaming of our most important protectors: our men and women in uniform—and that includes not only our military, but also our policemen and women. To publicly subject our soldiers, sailors, and marines to scrutiny that is simply based in the ugliness of political correctness is abhorrent and MUST be stopped.
Too many of our “representatives” and most of the Hollywood leftist elites are disdainful of our military, our intelligence gathering communities, our police forces across this nation. Movies frequently show them in a negative light, and they are either portrayed as stupid pawns or malicious, evil creatures. Our politicians deride them publicly without any fear of repercussions. In my life, experience has painted a far different image of these people. In fact, the military and police communities I have been privileged to experience are generally God-fearing and decent folk working hard everyday to ensure our safety. They voluntarily have given up much of the comfort that many of us take for granted. They live to protect us. The rare exception to that rule is not respected in their ranks and is usually self-censured. Discipline in the ranks is too important in their work to allow hot-heads with an agenda to work among them. To make wholesale denigrations of these fine people, as Washington and Hollywood are wont to do, is not only disgraceful, but also dangerous to the safety and well being of our nation.
Greatness is a rare human quality. Our culture tends to overuse the word. Look around you for those great persons—or the ones with potential greatness in them. The ones with the courage of conviction; ones who don’t light up under praise; ones whose time is now come. Maybe your neighbor? Is it you? We need another George Washington to save us from the debacle that is currently stirring in that town that bears his name.
