Principled Leadership

Well, I have returned after a brief hiatus to cast my bread once again upon the waters of the blogosphere. Today's question is "Where are our principled leaders?" You know, the ones willing to fall on their swords for deeply held beliefs, core values, bedrock principles. I recall that our Founding Fathers "pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" to the cause of independence. Each election cycle brings me closer to the realization that our nation is woefully lacking in this type of individual in today's national political realm. There may be many reasons for this, but the reasons are for a later blog. Now to the matter at hand.

I grew up being taught and even believing that a man's word was his bond. Oh, and by the way, a man's word was as good as law for a long time in this great land of ours. My dad always stressed that you kept your word regardless of the cost to you personally. I guess that was his sacred honor. People used to transact business on a word and a handshake. As our nation began to slide into its present moral morass, folks could no longer rely on a man's word. They relied on their lawyers to force folks into keeping their word or to assist them in squirming out of their own word. It is so sad to say that now fewer than one in six people trust nor respect our elected "leaders", perhaps because they have become so adept at twisting out of promises, bending the truth to buoy their self-aggrandizing positions on issues of concern and slithering out of commitments they have made by parsing words to advance themselves politically (or worse, financially). They have sold their principles for temporal advancement and selfish gain.

I think the citizenry still gets it. We are longing for men and women of principle (American principles formed and fostered by those that have preceded us in this great land, those who left its care and nurture to us now living) that will truly lead by example, by sacrifice, by their sacred honor rather than for the fulfillment of their own appetites for power, money and influence. Do they not realize that leaders are effective and hold a positive place for posterity only when they are wed to their principles? May heaven break this light upon us all.