Courage, Respect, Leadership

Now that we have presumptive nominees for all major parties to the US November Election, let's take a moment away from the beauty contest of the campaign and look at what we want and need in the next president:

Moral Courage

Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change. -- Robert F. Kennedy, June 6, 1966 speech in Capetown, South Africa

The expectation of the US as a "moral leader" in the world has been badly shaken in recent years.

If the US is to effect positive change on itself, and suggest (or, even, pressure) other nations do likewise, finding its moral compass will be necessary. Until America acts on that discovery with moral courage, however, it will not find the "change" needed to go forward.

Purposed Respect

I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. -- Jackie Robinson

If the US is to be part of global society, it must stop name-calling and talk with others around the world. Talking does not constitute agreement, nor does it condone action. It demonstrates a purposeful respect of others, giving it the right to ask for the same in return.

Men are respectable only as they respect. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leadership

Leadership begins only when a person achieves a standard that others will respect and follow.

This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him. -- William Lyon Phelps

It holds authority only when it recognizes true worth, and supports it rather than destroying it in others.

Never take a person's dignity: it is worth everything to them, and nothing to you. -- Frank Barron

Leadership finds opportunity in differences, respects it, and demonstrates it accross the spectrum of its pervue ...

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater. -- Anon

... and in every situation.

A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture. -- Abraham J. Heschel

Social Security, Medicare, poverty, homelessness, jobs ...

If the president-elect has the moral courage to respect and lead with attentiveness to the opportunity of this land, rather than demanding a fear of others and forgetting those who cannot "benefit" him/her, then change can happen in the next term.