Letter to the Editor

Bring back quality in our leadership

Thursday, July 31, 2014

To the Editor:

Many times, leadership is taken for granted until it is absent. I have seen this scenario play out in many situations over the years. I have been very fortunate to be exposed to quality leadership on many occasions, but that has led to poor leadership and no leadership being exposed more frequently and dramatically by comparison. In our daily lives we may see quality or poor leadership in personal relationships or among civic groups or even in local government. Quality of leadership can be influenced by one's upbringing, education, personal influences, personality, etc. Quality in leadership is best judged by actions and not words. As we have all seen, quality of leadership can singlehandedly lead to the success or failure of an organization. This is the part that is frightening the most to me. For the US, the greatest nation in the history of the world, to have such a poor leader, one that, at best, struggles with honesty; one that spends more time satisfying his own personal desires (vacations, golf, etc.) and that of his friends and family (on the public dime) than dealing with the responsibilities of his job; one that spends the money of the nation he is supposed to be helping on things that in no way can be interpreted as good for America; one that ignores the very charter of the country he is paid to direct; and one that is more intent on humiliating his predecessor than saving the lives of the soldiers in and citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, all of these examples of poor leadership and many others cause me pause as I consider the success and the future of our nation.

I am a believer in hope. I am a believer in the future of our nation. But I am also not naïve when it comes to the amount of work it is going to take to get our pride back, to get that swagger back that we used to have as individuals and as a nation. In my relatively short life, I can honestly say I do remember a day when America showed up on the scene, everything really was going to be alright. That not only came from having the capability to make things right through negotiation and/or insistence, but through quality leadership.

We all have a responsibility as American Citizens, not only on August 5th, but every day and for the rest of our lives, to strive to return and keep true quality leadership to every elected office in our nation from the most menial position all the way to the White House. Hope is not just a buzzword used by the left, and success is not a pejorative used to encourage class warfare. We can return America to its glory days and with the help of the Almighty, it can be in our lifetimes.

Eddy Justice

Poplar Bluff, Mo.