Credit Crisis

”There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
— Ronald Reagan


Now that the mid-term elections are over, the real fun begins, (can you hear my sarcasm?).  The past few weeks since the elections, the Democrats and Republicans have started in on each other once again to pass blame and to criticize the ideas and direction that each side believes is the best way for the country to move forward.  They talk about the “lame duck” session of congress and what they will try to push through.  Will they be able to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?”  Although this issue may be important to some, its resolution is not essential to turning the economy around.  

During the many interviews and face to face debates on the network and cable news stations, the phrases “The American People” and “The Future of our Children” come up often. Each time they do, my head feels like it wants to EXPLODE! With all of the talk about their concern about the American People it is quite apparent that they care very little about our current and future state.

While they bicker with each other, many Americans struggle to make ends meet.  They’re concerned about the cost of health care, about the economy, about high and burdensome tax rates, and the never ending spending of our financial resources on things that do not keep our people safe or enhance the quality of our lives.

Last week I was walking in our downtown area where I met two men sitting on a bench drinking coffee.  As I began to speak with them they said that this is the worst they have ever seen in terms of the economy.  They spoke of the struggle to find work, to pay bills and to get ahead.  This is what is on the minds of the American people.

Please hear me when I say that I am not expecting the government to take care of me or my family, I can do that myself.  What I am saying is that our elected leaders continue to miss the mark on what is truly important to us. For many of them it is about winning and losing the party fight.  It is about their personal agenda and making the other side look bad.  We must demand from our elected officials to put away partisan political games and get this country back on track, together.

We can accomplish great things when we “don’t care who gets the credit.”  

Transformational Leadership

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.  What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? 
To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?  Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain.  Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”  Isaiah 10:1-4 NIV 

With the elections around the corner we hear from so many of the candidates who promise that if they are elected they are going to do so and so.  Once elected, we will soon discover that many of them will go back on their promises.  When questioned about why they have not kept their promises, they will say things like:  It will take time, I am working on it or they will go into spin mode.  For those candidates wanting to be re-elected, they too make promises.  My question has always been why you don’t do what you are promising to do now while you are in office?  Why wait until after the elections?  


What the American people really need is transformational leadership, leadership that makes a difference in the communities in which they serve.  Whether you are Republican or Democrat we continue to see poverty, crime, and poor public education.  It is not getting, and has not gotten any better and things go on as they have for decades.  We need leaders that will stand up for what is right for all Americans not just the ones that agree with them.  Our country needs leaders that can make a real and sustainable difference in the lives of its people.  


Our leaders need to be mindful that the leadership is not about their special interests, or lining their pockets.  It is about the greater good for all citizens of this country.  Every leader must know that they will be held accountable for the decisions they make, both good and bad.