THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609200714
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: [BY JULIE PARKER]
LENGTH: 59 lines
My daughter's 9th-grade Ancient History class was recently discussing the qualities that go into making a good leader. The group felt that their leader should be able to compromise, be motivational, be respected and respect others; have intelligence, patience, strength, a sense of humor, fairness and the ability to challenge old ideas, which would take great courage. I looked at the list and waited for someone to pop into my head. Solomon? Too old. A wiseacre. Jefferson? Too good to be true. Lincoln, perhaps.
Nobody in our recent history comes to mind. It isn't that we've stopped admiring and valuing simple human virtues. They're just harder to recognize, mired as they are in this impossible stew we've cooked for ourselves.
No matter how many parenting books we read, none of us will be perfect parents. And so we learn to shorten our checklist when electing our public officials, our governmental parents. Each of us has our own tolerance level for the goof-ups of others.
Can we expect perfection on any level from our leaders, mere mortals who've chosen government as a profession? They're thrust at us for reasons best left to their parties and their analysts and subjected to the most ghastly scrutinizing that doesn't even end with death.
Perhaps the best leaders then have the strongest stomachs, and are made of rubber for resiliency. The cream of the crop, it would seem though, prefers to stay home. Those we couldn't coerce, I'd like to think, said thanks but no thanks out of strong sense of family, of moral integrity, rather than fear of flapping dirty linen and skeletons in their closets. Norman Schwarzkopf has a different agenda, can't be pressured. Same with Mario Cuomo.
We long for those who are not quite within our grasp. (Well, some of us do.) But moral integrity is not enough, either. Jimmy Carter might have lusted only in his heart, or wherever, but he lacked moxie, oratorical oomph.
How much can we expect our leaders to be like us? Do we want that? Who made us the morality police?
Shouldn't we be cherishing the ability to think fast on one's feet, that gleam of ingenuity? The refreshing breath of creativity and resourcefulness? Perhaps a leader is only as good as his followers. If so, we must possess the ability to weed through the speech writer's jive and sort out the core from the crust.
For John Kennedy, a successful political career ``would be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage. . . . Second, were we truly men of judgment. . . . Third, were we truly men of integrity. .
Bill Bradley connects leadership with self-knowledge: ``Above all, a leader's abilities and sense of national direction must in part reflect what is best about America and in so doing, give people hope.''
Bring on the visionary, with the ingenuity of the Wright Brothers and the resourcefulness of Houdini, able to paint himself out of a situation like Picasso and see through buildings like Superman, someone who doesn't cave in when his buttons are being pushed and can keep his own hand away from the button in the briefcase.
In the meantime, take it from the 9th graders. Read their list again. It's a fine and thoughtful one. And we shouldn't expect anything less from our leaders. by CNB