Leadership is not affirmative action or formula advertising

And what America needs now, more than ever, is real leadership.

An ideal leader of our country in any of the three branches of the federal government is intelligent, educated, experienced, and capable of tough love. We seem to have few people like this these days, and we should be very concerned.

For years now, really decades, we have used what people are vice who people are as a screening qualification for our future leaders. While the intentions might have been good, Martin Luther King was correct in asserting it should always be about qualifications and character. Promoting double standards has hurt the people affected and our country. Young people selected to compete with more qualified peers will invariably get frustrated and bitter. This frustration is often amplified by soldiers following leaders, sick people seeking medical care, or citizens seeking a lawyer wondering about one’s qualifications. And this author taught at Atlanta University for three years, so the author thoroughly understands and believes in the “diamond in the rough” idea. But when the then Ambassador to Iraq has an Arabic name and Muslim religion, and now he is the US Ambassador to the UN, one wonders if the old “what you are qualification” is still alive and well. This may not be fair, but that is just the way it is for both friends and enemies.

Now I have read the upcoming Democratic Presidential nomination convention has mandated racial quotas down to the tenth of a percent. Just who are these people who decide the numbers, and the definition of race? And more recently, I read there will be a “secret” as in “off the record” meeting very shortly about sanctioning certain states for moving up their primary votes. Maybe these 30 deciders have our best national interests in mind, and maybe they don’t. I would like to be a fly on the wall, or even make this an “on the record” meeting. And one may worse case this suspicion that the Republicans are just as bad in using the idea of what people are vice who people are.

As a citizen who only watches TV programs from the Discovery channels, the History channels, and Fox News (for now), I notice many advertisements these days include original music from the 50’s and 60’s. The trend is obvious, though the cause is beyond me. It is obvious we Americans are formula, at least to TV advertisers trying to make a living. And they are using the music in their cause. My oldest son, born in 1973, believes there are two formula trends at play. First is that people like original music. Second is that it works, as in making a lot of money.

But successful advertising formula is not leadership. Hired polls and focus groups is not leadership. What America needs now, more than ever, is leaders who are intelligent, educated, management experienced, chauvinistic as in appreciate their country, capable of tough love…and willing to say it on the record and accept the voters will.