Thursday, September 08, 2005
observations on leaders
I wonder why we elect presidents who don't know the cost of anything?
Would it make more sense to make ever presidential candidate spend the year before the cacuses and primaries living as if they made minimum wage? Maybe if we had leaders who knew what it was like to live without health insurance, enough food to eat, a descent place to live, designer clothes and fancy coffee we woudl have someone who knew how to treat people with compassion. The only candidate who looked like he might understand what a middle class or working family had to go through was John Edwards, and even he was from a life of comfort and wealth. But at least he didnt' go to an Ivy League School and pledge his soul to the devil in some campus club.
Being a leader doesn't mean designer suits. Being a leader doesn't mean your wife can walk around observing the poor from her manicured and sterile vantage point in her silk suit and perfect pearl necklace. Being a leader means knowing what the suffering is like. It means getting your hands dirty helping, not advising and not making promises and throwing money out to the unwashed masses trying to look generous and caring while staying far away from them.
It means being non-judgemental about those who are survivors of tradegies such as Hurricane Katrina. It means knowing that although Prayers are helpful they shouldn't be mentioned as if the prayer alone will save the survivors from peril. Sure God will help, but you know the saving, "God helps those who help themselves." A real leader knows how to help God help others and themselves, not just asks people to pray. It means being willing to get out of the sterile box and DO something.
Crawford TX is a place that has a big ranch which, as far as I can determine, is only used as a hideaway for some government officials. If Mr. Bush and his family are seriously concerned about the plight of those made homeless by the hurricane why hasn't he offered his own ranch as a place to relocate people?
Are the evacuees that are several rungs below the Bush family on the social and economic ladder "beneath" the Bush family? Are they unworthy of consideration and aid on a personal level? Are only people of "like" socio-economic brackets supposed to help each other?
This administration loves to claim it's Christian. Am I mistake? Didn't Jesus say "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." If so, when does this administration want to acknowledge the least? The reaction from Mr. Bush so far seems to say that they are so far away from knowing not only who the least are but what the least need.
Would it make more sense to make ever presidential candidate spend the year before the cacuses and primaries living as if they made minimum wage? Maybe if we had leaders who knew what it was like to live without health insurance, enough food to eat, a descent place to live, designer clothes and fancy coffee we woudl have someone who knew how to treat people with compassion. The only candidate who looked like he might understand what a middle class or working family had to go through was John Edwards, and even he was from a life of comfort and wealth. But at least he didnt' go to an Ivy League School and pledge his soul to the devil in some campus club.
Being a leader doesn't mean designer suits. Being a leader doesn't mean your wife can walk around observing the poor from her manicured and sterile vantage point in her silk suit and perfect pearl necklace. Being a leader means knowing what the suffering is like. It means getting your hands dirty helping, not advising and not making promises and throwing money out to the unwashed masses trying to look generous and caring while staying far away from them.
It means being non-judgemental about those who are survivors of tradegies such as Hurricane Katrina. It means knowing that although Prayers are helpful they shouldn't be mentioned as if the prayer alone will save the survivors from peril. Sure God will help, but you know the saving, "God helps those who help themselves." A real leader knows how to help God help others and themselves, not just asks people to pray. It means being willing to get out of the sterile box and DO something.
Crawford TX is a place that has a big ranch which, as far as I can determine, is only used as a hideaway for some government officials. If Mr. Bush and his family are seriously concerned about the plight of those made homeless by the hurricane why hasn't he offered his own ranch as a place to relocate people?
Are the evacuees that are several rungs below the Bush family on the social and economic ladder "beneath" the Bush family? Are they unworthy of consideration and aid on a personal level? Are only people of "like" socio-economic brackets supposed to help each other?
This administration loves to claim it's Christian. Am I mistake? Didn't Jesus say "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." If so, when does this administration want to acknowledge the least? The reaction from Mr. Bush so far seems to say that they are so far away from knowing not only who the least are but what the least need.
