The Leaders We Follow

Do the failings of our leaders reflect on the leaders themselves or on all of us who allow them to lead?

I know it's a hypothetical question, but it certainly has weight when looking at the world today. We have leaders all over the world whose words and actions have done more and more damage to an already tenuous and precarious situation.

Here are but a few examples of what I mean:

• Pope Benedict XVI quotes a Byzantine emperor who called some of the teachings of Mohammed "evil and inhuman". In one thoughtless act, this pope erased all the effort of the previous pope to bring the Roman Catholic faith together with the other faiths of the world. Not surprisingly, the Muslim world is up in arms. Talk about adding fuel to an already burning fire.
• Fox News, the leader in conservative television opinion, has lauched a new campaign: since the war they backed in Iraq has failed and the administration they lionized has not made this country safer from terror, they have decided to return to what had made them successful in the first place. The Fox News group is now blaming Bill Clinton for Osama bin Laden. Of course, they act as though they're being attacked unfairly when Clinton retaliated. But Fox News remembered: attacking Clinton is what put them on the map. They are faltering. They must resort to what worked before. No matter that this president hasn't succeeded -- in fact made it worse.
• With Iraq drawing ever closer to a civil war and with the world teetering between peace and global warfare, George Bush spoke to the United Nations about the success in Iraq. What planet is he on? What freedoms have Iraqis gained when they cannot even go outside without fear of being gunned down or blown up? What was he talking about?
• Hugo Chavez called George Bush the devil in the same U.N. proceedings. Now, I despise our president. I am ashamed that he is in our White House. But he is not the devil. George Bush is likely the worst president in American history. He is still light years better than thousands of leaders historically who are more prone to being called the devil. Chavez just signed a deal with a country (Iran) that funds terrorism -- including suicide bombings. He just made a deal with the devil.
• Speaking of the devil: the good Rev. Jerry Falwell said yesterday that if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party's choice for president in 2008, it would motivate conservative evangelical Christians to oppose her more than if the devil himself were running. Good to know that the Christian right has admitted to preferring evil to logic.
• The number one box office hit this week: Jackass: Number Two

Now, who should we blame for this? Do we blame the leaders? I mean, it seems that every one of them is underserving at best. Perhaps, though, we should stop doing what bad leaders do. See, bad leaders do what Fox News does -- blame someone else for their bad situation. Perhaps it is time for us to do something different.

Let us realize that for the world to get better, we must change. We must choose better leadership. We must choose to follow those who will take us to a better place. If we continue to follow bad leadership, then the only ones we have to blame is ourselves.