Leadership

“The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone - even to himself.”

 

--Andre Malraux--

 

“We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.”

 

--Lyndon B. Johnson--

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

 

--Sir Winston Churchill--

 

 

Well, I am back from a much needed vacation.  Over the past several weeks I have watched the little drama that was created by Jesse Jackson's comments on Fox on July 6th.  The media immediately went after Jackson for his comments and they should have.  However, I have no interest in trying to rekindle the media scrutiny since it has at last died down.  Instead, I want to raise another issue.  An issue that has historically been overlooked and never asked.

 

The media is good at touching on the easy, shallow, and obvious issues.  I want to touch on a more subtle one.  I want to touch on the issue of leadership by asking a simple question.  What role do people like Jesse Jackson play in our community?  Or to be more direct, should a politician be considered a leader in our community?

 

My first reaction is to answer the latter question in the negative.  The answer to the first question seems obvious to me.  I will explain.

 

I must address my implied assertion that people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are de facto politicians.  People like Sharpton and Jackson may have been true leaders in our community in the past but they have become too close to the political establishments to be truly independent agitators for change in our community, which is what is needed to be a community leader.  Both of them ran for President.  Both have declared party affiliations and are a part of the party apparatus during Presidential elections.

 

It is not my intent to disparage or insult Jackson or Sharpton or any other local preacher or self styled community leader that has his/her hands in politics.  That is not the purpose of this article.  The purpose of this article is to raise the issue that once a person becomes a part of the partisan political process then they can not be a true leader in the community.  I want to be very clear.  There is a big difference between supporting a politician during a particular election solely based on that person’s positions on the issues as opposed to supporting a politician based on party affiliation or personal access.

 

The reason a partisan politician (de facto or otherwise) can not be a true leader in the community is that a community leader’s priority has to be the community.  It can not be a party. It can not be a career.  It can not be a personal agenda.  It must be the community.  And the only way to look out for a community is by addressing issues, which means that it is very unlikely that any particular political party will always be a friend.  Therefore it is not wise to get too comfortable with any political party.

 

It is about time that someone has raised this issue because our community just like the rest of our country has mistaken politicians for leaders and publicity for leadership for far too long.  The simplest definition of a leader is a person that has followers.  That is what we have had in our community for too many years.   Now we are finally starting to require more from people who are supposed to be our leaders.  We must not stop.  We must continue to challenge our alleged leaders to represent our interests instead of their own.

 

The truth is that the number one priority for a politician is to get elected.  Some politicians will sink lower than others in pursuit of that goal, but the priority is the same.  The same is also true for political actors.  The more votes that a political actor can deliver the more access he/she will have to politicians in power.  Access means power.  Power is usually the goal not the advancement of community agendas.

 

In order to get elected and remain in office a politician must compromise.  He/she must say and do things that they do not believe in or do not believe in as much as they lead “us” to think.  That is the nature of politics.  However, what happens when a question must be asked that will likely anger a strong voting block?  What happens when a position on an issue must be taken based solely on principle instead of political feasibility?  Is it reasonable to expect a politician or a political actor to take that stand or ask that question?  I think not. 

 

That is where the biggest difference between a community leader and a politician is exposed.  The community leader will push for unpopular issues based on what is best for his/her community, while a politician will try to avoid having to deal with unpopular issues.  Our community and our country need both community leaders and politicians.

 

Our community seems to have the politician thing down.  Now we must start to develop more community leaders.