Leadership

Posted on February 27, 2004 in Citizenship Poetry

Today is politics Friday!

I found this while looking for an article about the facts of an interesting copyright case involving former Senator Alan Cranston and Adolf Hitler. Cranston had read Mein Kampf in the original German and noted, upon his return to the USA, that the American version had left out certain key parts which talked about what Hitler wanted to do. So Alan published a pirated, unexpurgated version. Hitler’s lawyers took Cranston to court and won — after half a million copies had seen print.

What caught my eye as I read an email interview with Cranston was this Lao Tzu poem that he said was a guide for all leaders:

A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists.

Less good when
They obey and acclaim him.

Worse when
They fear and despise him.

Fail to honor people,
And they fail to honor you.

But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say:
"We did this ourselves."

When I think back to the New Deal privileges and aids that enabled many of us to become professionals — all the while letting us think that we deserved the whole credit for our success — I feel sad that we have dismantled them. Now a vocal minority shouts the Hosannahs for a man who styles himself as our protector and who fails to honor those who give of their lives for their country as soldiers and as working people.