by John Steinbach

Created on: August 04, 2007

The United States has an obligation to be a world leader, but very differently from the hubris-filled Bush Administration style. We must lose the paternalistic notion that we know best. We must, first and foremost, lead by example.

To lead, a leader must know who is following. If this country is to be an able and responsible leader, it had better do a better job of learning and becoming sensitive to the cultures and traditions of the world's peoples. There is no one size fits all. We cannot afford to assume our formulas are the best.

Before we go into another culture for any reason, be it war or for providing humanitarian aid, we must do our homework. We must know how the country will respond, how its people will react. We must know well what the consequences of our actions will be - all of them. This administration's record on this is shabby at best. It is negligent and incompetent at worst.

We must lead by example. Therefore, if we are to hold up for the world to see a land governed by laws and not by men, a land where we revere freedom, then we had better do a better job of enforcing laws on all equally, from the poor to the rich, from the powerless to the most powerful. We had better do a better job of protecting the liberties of our citizens from warrantless eavesdropping and other like invasions on our basic rights. We had better do a better job of opening the doors to opportunity and well-being.

What culture out in the world wants to emulate our form of government, when it does not practice what it preaches, when crime in some of our cities rivals the violence of neighborhoods in Baghdad?

All this said, there are still more folks wanting to come into this country than want to leave it. And the United States is arguably the wealthiest nation on earth, with still the best higher education system anywhere. But I would suggest that these positives give the United States a moral imperative to lead very differently than it now does.

The wealth and talent that this country has cannot be exploited for political gain anymore. There are issues of a global nature that demand the use of our wealth and talents, and the ceasing of the abuse of our wealth and talent, before the world spirals into climatic disaster, nuclear annihilation, or some other domination by terror.

In short, we need to lead from a very much higher ground. We need to lead more competently. We need to lead much more responsibly.

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