This past Saturday, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley made history by piloting the first commercial manned space flight to the ISS. The private-public effort led by SpaceX marked the first time since 2011 that astronauts have launched into space off of US soil.
But then shortly after fire catapulted mankind into orbit, flames of rage exploded back at home. Peaceful protests in response to the death of George Floyd turned violent Saturday night in many cities across the country, including my hometown of Grand Rapids.
It was a monumental weekend that elicited a range of emotions. We witnessed the highs of ingenuity juxtaposed against the lows of injustice.
As I considered my post for this week, I couldn’t escape the urge to comment on what just happened. The way I see it, last Saturday’s events offered a stark contrast of what leadership can produce at its very best, and the consequences of failed leadership at its very worse.
In my opinion, one man deserves a lot of praise for leading America through unprecedented progress in space flight, electric transportation, and renewable energy, while another man deserves equal recognition for leading America through three years of unprecedented polarization, distrust, and disinformation.
I don’t wish this post to be seen as political. It’s not my intention to pit Republicans against Democrats, or give the impression that one party is right or the other is wrong.
This is a post about leadership. Or, the lack thereof that our country has tolerated over the last three years.
America is hurting. Deeply. And as a student of leadership on this blog, I felt it appropriate to express some frustration as to why I believe we’ve arrived where we are today.
To begin, let’s get one thing straight. The killing of George Floyd doesn’t happen because Donald Trump is in office. Nor is it fair to blame him for the pandemic or our crumbling economy. These tragedies are systemic and global failures that shouldn’t be blamed on a specific individual or used as a political argument.
That said, the reactions we’ve seen in light of these events – the deep seated anger, blame, confusion, and frustration expressed across this country – is, in my opinion, a direct result of incompetent leadership.
Time and again, when Trump has had the opportunity to bring people together, he has done the exact opposite. He’s either too busy blaming his political opponents, insinuating retaliation, or planting seeds of distrust to recognize that what American’s need from their President right now is solidarity, ownership, and truth.
The country by all measures is unequivocally worse off today than it was three years ago. “The polarization, the attacks on the press, the destruction of norms and institutions, the moral and ethical degradation that enables us to look away from kids in cages, the poisoning of the party of Lincoln, America’s freefalling world leadership role, the wanton racism, the dictator love, the emolumental illness, the fleecing of the nation, the firing of people for doing their jobs, the embrace of enemies and insulting of allies, the acceptance of traitorous behavior, the climate denial, the treaty torching, the unearthing of the nation’s darkest impulses, the lie after lie after lie…” Dave Pell recounts everything that some of us have grown numb to and accepted as our new normal.
Many people that I know, love, and trust had good reasons for voting for Trump in 2016. At the time, many people felt like he was the better of two poor options. I get it.
But what frustrates me now is when I hear us continue to excuse the President for his repeated failures in leadership.
Since when have we come to expect so little from our appointed leaders? Since when have the alleged failures on the other side of the aisle become an acceptable justification for our own party’s misdeeds?
Americans deserves better leadership from our President, our congressmen, our governors, our mayors, and from all of those elected into public office.
And when leadership fails, it’s our responsibility to speak up and demand a change.
Leave a Comment