When defining the term leader, it ecompasses a massive amount of varying aspects. One of the most fundamental definitions would be to live and behave in a manner that other people could follow. Many of this week’s conversations hinted at what it meant to be a leader of a protest or what to do to get others to follow. The talk by Dr. Robin Kirk did an outstanding job exemplifying the rise of the United States to becoming a world leader, but I thought she did an even greater job explaining the reluctance to maintain that label and to be satisfied living below the moral standard that once governed the nation.
One of the points that Dr. Kirk highlighted that was the United States has always been on the forefront in the battle for human rights. This fight has always been championed by the United States and something that the country had fought diligently for years. However, after the 9/11 attacks, the United States changed their view on protecting rights and dignity by deciding to do whatever they deemed necessary to get the desired results. They embarked on one of the most horrific displays of torture and improper treatment ever seen in the modern era. The reintroduction of waterboarding, holding people in dark rooms on days on end with no food or water, and forcing individuals to stand for hours in excruciating positions to extract as much pain as possible was all fair game to the United States government. Another portion of the talk that made me realize the fundamental change was when Dr. Kirk stated a famous quote issued by Stalin: “the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic.” Instantly it got me thinking about an article in Time Magazine. With the recent shooting in Florida, the magazine ran an article about whether or not we had become numb to school shootings. The article reports that there have been more than 50 school shootings. Read that number again, over 50 school shootings in the academic year. Many of these though are here today and gone tomorrow. The tragedy is forever for the families but it is no longer news within a day. This point is indicative of just how far America has fallen from the leadership role that we are no longer able to protect ourselves in our own country, especially is a place that is supposed to be a safe haven in schools.
I think this can also be extrapolated to the way that the United States has viewed environmental policy decisions. The United States is the largest producer of CO2 per capita of any country in the world by a large margin. In 2015, the United States produced 15.53 metric tons per capita of CO2. The United States has continuously used and abused the environment without any concern for the future. The idea of change is a daunting one and will take an extreme amount of work to accomplish. In his book Rules for Radicals, Saul D. Alinksy declares that people must have their minds changed and think in a different way for there to be a revolution in the way that we behave. His point has been demonstrated multiple occasions and to fix issues will take time, but when we band together it is possible. I took this quote from the book as hope for the future; Alinsky writes, “I salute the present generation. Hang on to one of your most precious parts of youth, laughter—don’t lose it as many of you seem to have done, you need it. Together we may find some of what we’re looking for—laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create.” Banding together and working together will be the only way out of this world that we have become accustomed. The message is timeless; the efforts of us all will pave the future so why not choose to act now and create something beautiful and amazing?
