LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
Other than the Magna Carta, the importance of leadership in a democratic society has always been borne by Americans. Leadership is not merely standing ahead of the rest. It is taking a chance to say and do thbe right and moral thing when others around you are in doubt. Thomas Jefferson said it best for America: We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" (Jefferson 1). And yet, as you well know, there are powers, nations, religious sects, and individual groups who dispute this right of equality and freedom. They tell you, and through you, the rest of America, that it is not our concern what they do in the name of God or Allah, Buddha, or Lao-Tse. One has to wonder whether they are right. One has to be concerned that, in the spirit in which this country was founded, is not the spirit some others may wish to assume for themselves and their people.
Leadership, at the beginning of the 21st Century is perhaps more determination to do what the majority may think is the right and moral thing to do- Iraq is a good example, as is Afghanistan. Leadership may also be described as a willingness to accept the scorn and derision of others, when a decision has been made to head in the direction you select.
Great care must be taken not to trespass someone else's legal and moral and ethical authority. Farley Mowatt, in his essay "Observing Wolves" makes a trenchant comment: "Having achieved my object- that of forcing at least one of the wolves to take cognizance of my existence- I now began top wonder if, in my ignorance, I had transgressed some unknown wolf law of major import and would have to pay for my temerity" (Mowatt 258). We are not animals, of course, except in the strictest biological sense. But,
...