I have been on this earth for over six decades, and I have never seen such a repetitious amount of temper tantrums, paranoia, propaganda and verbal eruptions directed towards political leaders. All of a sudden our structured and proven leadership models a
I have been on this earth for over six decades, and I have never seen such a repetitious amount of temper tantrums, paranoia, propaganda and verbal eruptions directed towards political leaders. All of a sudden our structured and proven leadership models are becoming inefficient.
The old saying of the late columnist Robert Novak seems to have taken hold: “Love your country, don’t trust the government.” Just what is causing this? Here’s my take.
We have always had a crisis to deal with such as The Depression, World War II, Korean War, Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, etc. It was rather easy then because they came one at a time. In this modern era of nanoseconds and instant information, things are starting to come at rapid fire. We are involved in two wars simultaneously with no apparent end in sight.
The reasons for them are faulty at best, and the respect and care we give our brave troops is less than admirable and, in fact, despicable. We are still going through the subprime mortgage fiasco in addition to the Wall St. Bailout, record unemployment and the worst debt our national treasury has ever seen.
From a leadership perspective the solutions are not clear. Fear has set in and what Franklin D. Roosevelt warned us about (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”) has settled in and is gripping our conscience.
We cannot overlook the race factor in all of this. Our sports heroes in just about all sports happen to be Black even if their last names are Hispanic. White kids love hip-hop and rap as much as anyone. The ultimate was the election of a Black president. These are not good times for people of racial animus. In fact, it is their worst nightmare and that is leading to scary ideas going through their heads. The reality is that we need big and strong leadership and the thought that it is going to come from a person of color is just too much for the old school thinking.
It is quite amazing that stories such as our president is an illegal alien or that he is planning death panels to kill off the sick and tired or is a Nazi (what happened to the communist name calling?) seems to be persuading those who are vulnerable to such paranoia. The “birthers,” “deathers” and others are getting time on national television and are subjects of intellectual debate. This is too scary for a democratic society. FDR, fear is everywhere right now.
______
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to our digital or paper edition. For previous editions, contact us for details.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
About Post Author
