Regular readers might be wondering what happened to our Kitchen-Table-wisdom in August???...Or not.
The fact is as the Kitchen-Table-troops and I watched uncivilized riots, fires and looting in the cities we have traveled to and once considered destinations - we were actually stumped for comments of any kind for several weeks.
More accurately I think would be, speechless. And that is saying something for a group of opinionated Baby Boomers who were in high school and university in the turbulent 60s and 70s - marching and protesting Vietnam, abortion rights, women's rights and equal pay for equal work, etc...
Baby Boomers didn't invent protesting - but we certainly refined it. However, we only burned our bras. We never set fire to entire buildings or stole property from hardworking business owners trying employ people and make a living...So it's now September 2020 and we in the Kitchen-Table-bunch have managed to gather our wits - while still searching for the missing common sense of various elected leaders [state governors and city mayors] from several scattered places across America.
Leadership can be tricky and political leadership even more so. It's 'tricky' because regardless of the leader's party/political affiliation once in public office 'that' loyalty needs to be put aside. Once in 'public-office' a mayor, a governor/premier, a president/prime minister must serve and protect not only those to did vote for them, but those who did not...The entire electorate.
The dictionary defines leadership as: the ability to guide, direct or influence people. But 'is' that guidance and/or influence selfish or inclusive?
To answer that question we next need to look at 'ability'. In the 'A' section of the dictionary I used ability is defined as; a gift for doing something well with a high degree of competence using skill, a knack or an aptitude...But that leadership-ability as the world has witnessed historically can be a high degree of influence and competence - misused. [Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, Bin Laden come to mind.]
We-The-People for whom the United States Constitution was written [by some impressive leaders whose faces grace our money] expect productive-leadership. And to be accurate even those early leaders [framers of our constitution] were seriously flawed by today's view. Regardless, it is not only expected it is a standard that leadership be inclusive and ethical.
So - is our present violent unrest a push-pull of ideology? Is it an arm wrestle for commerce versus community or liberal versus conservative or profit versus nonprofit? It shouldn't be. The left should not be competing against the right because a functioning nation needs both.
Ideally leaders guide using forethought and empathy, but unfortunately neither the governors nor the mayors in the spotlight - are using either.
There are two factors in play at the core of the state and civic leadership where rioters took control and both are equally toxic to all citizenry. The 1st is quite frankly; 'The-Peter-Principle' and the 2nd is Entitlement.
If you're the owner of a small business or manager of a medium sized business or CEO of a major corporation, leadership 'ability' can be mixed, but not effective for staying in business long term. Guiding efficiently and fairly and influencing to teach or mentor becomes an immense gain for team spirit or military cohesion, business profits and/or national progress. This is the opposite approach that dictators like Castro, Putin and Xi Jinping still haven't learned. Fear and force become a perverse form of control that soon places the leader at risk as much as the people that leader seeks to dominate.
But for the purposes of reflection by our Kitchen-Table observers let's suppose the governors of all the states experiencing violent unrest and all mayors of the cities facing riots still plan to seek reelection. Which - from the perspective of our armchair-quarterbacks is delusional optimism. [But hey, we've been wrong before and we have a combined 420 years -more or less- of experience being just as wrong as we are just as correct. So continue reading at your own risk...]
With that weak disclaimer I digress somewhat...Okay, with political leadership the stakes are higher, and the personal-liability with job accountability should be too. They aren't. Leadership qualities in America have been [historically] like a carnival ring toss, because depending on voter turnout, voter education and voter knowledge - cities, states or the country got the prize stuffed bear [results] of a majority vote for which half were annoyed...
City mayors or state governors or federal representatives or presidents literally make lifestyle as well as life and death decisions for thousands of the faceless and the nameless. [If you're in Congress or the Senate or the President you may send people off to war - so how does that measure up on the Karma Richter scale?]Let's repeat that; they literally make lifestyle as well as life and death decisions - and - leaders make those decisions for other people they may never meet or even realize their decision impact. And that is the pivotal disconnect - which the Kitchen-Table-troops and I believe has been one of the bewildering causes of why and how so many governors and mayors continue in such an obviously destructive direction - regardless of strong contradictory evidence. That 1stFactor is the "The Peter Principal"- of incompetency... Do any of these leaders comprehend what they've done?
The lyrics of a Hall & Oates song truly applies: "...it's so easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain..."
However, in the 21st Century clueless leadership is not a defense...Either is citizens blindly voting for a candidate merely because they run for a leadership position supported by a specific party.
Interestingly around my kitchen table are two registered Democrats three registered Republicans and one registered Independent [me]. But you need to know also that each and everyone of our Kitchen-Table-opinionated-amateurs have voted for people of other parties because they seek the best in leadership ability. Though sometimes that is not entirely possible because what voters get to choose from is between 'metaphorically' a bruised apple or an over ripe banana. [Not the least bit profound I know - sorry.]
Not just the temptation of taking more than their due - but 'thinking' they have a 'right' to more than their due because of the public office they hold. The key-word being 'public' of which far too many re-elected people like our DC Dinosaurs conveniently forget.
After two or more decades certain personality types [narcissistic] believe the office is their property and they don't need to 'share' with the peers who put them there. And since the label of narcissist has been flung from sea to shinning sea let's check our trusty dictionary for a peek at that too: vain, self-absorbed, selfish, conceited, self important with an over estimation of his or her own appearance and abilities...
Gosh folks, the list of people in public office who don't fit elements of the above description is extremely short, but like anything there are moderates and extremes. As voters - now that we know more 'accurately' what to look for we can strive for candidates who fit the more moderate end of the narcissistic-spectrum.
From here, now where?
Regardless of who voters are limited in selecting, we can still insist on accountability. To secure accountability we phone, we write, we email and we ask questions and we expect a respectful and thoughtful answer to our questions. We are the employer. [We and too many or them forget that]. The taxes we pay from our yearly income pays their income -and- their expenses -and- their pensions -and- their benefits -and- their opportunity to meet influential people who offer more opportunity.
And ladies and gentlemen that means as voters we have a 'responsibility' to this democracy and the republic-for-which it-stands that requires of us, regular diligence. Which also means absolutely no person holding a public office is relaxed in that job, but fearful each day they will and can be replaced...
*Sherrie Todd-Beshore was a feature writer and columnist [for a number of magazines and newspapers Memoir From 'There' to 'Here']
who shifted to fiction in 2006 with 16 novels in print. This blog
attempts to highlight some of the social issues reaching critical mass
in America.
http://www.patchworkpublishing.com/
http://www.patchworkpublishing.com/
Comments