John's Blog

I'm just being naive, but I've always functioned under the assumption that being a bully wasn't such a good thing. I see that we try to educate our kids about how to stop bullies, but the bully blight continues. But is it any wonder that kids (& myself) might be just a little bit confused?

If we look at "our leaders" in both the business world and in government (way too many examples to come up with one link...just Google "Bush bully", but be careful and type correctly!) we see that it's usually the bully that wins. What kind of a message does that send? Time and time again we reward the bully with power and authority; has our results oriented society placed "success at any price" as one of the key values we ascribe to? Apparently, so.

Is it unrealistic to expect leadership with a soul? When did leading by example, building a consensus, and being self-aware and benevolent go out of style? True leaders have vision and lead, and aren't just managers who micromanage. Governments treat citizens with disdain while claiming to exhibit "compassionate conservatism". Businesses fail to recognize that their employees are their strongest asset and treat them as adversaries. How and why did we get so much so wrong?

It's not just the Bolton thing that brought on this rant, but it was perhaps the straw that broke the camels' back. Glad to see the postponement of a vote on this horrible nomination. Sending him to the UN ranks just behind "free beer nite" at an AA meeting on the continuum of bad ideas. I'm hopeful that we may still win this fight, but I'm not that optimistic. I suppose that my dream of a "kinder, gentler nation" (insert irony tag here) remains just a dream.