PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE?

.

I wish I followed the lives of political leaders, but I don't, and that is a travesty because in order for a Republic to work as it was intended or is expected, every citizen should have a firm commitment to knowing who is in charge of their security, prosperity, and well-being (or stealth, wealth, & health). We have institutions like The Department of Homeland Security, a conglomerate of agencies dedicated to our safety from further attacks on the people of the United States, (but many U.S. Americans (USAMs)believe it is to protect the property and huge corporate investments of the top one percent of the most wealthy USAMs, the U.S. Government, and the military establishment aka government within a government. Actually, I have never seen Homeland’s charter or the Law that created this new Department, and right now I could not tell you who is head of it. Case in point, we want to know who are leaders are and, while having them by the bushels full, we do not know their names. Or what they do on our behalf. Anyone ever request the minutes of the Senate or House Committee minutes that put the meat on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) bones? Can a U.S. citizen request such records? Hmmmm. If possible, how much would they cost and how long would it take to get them and then read them? Would an average citizen (high school education) be able to understand them? Are there extracts somewhere like the Library of Congress and accessible on line? If not, perhaps they should be.

.

It would take a Texas Weselayn University graduate like Marc Veasey, Democrat (Tex Rep) to explain why such information is not taught in high schools across the country. In Civics, I remember the Constitution and a general outline of how the government is arranged in three branches, but the actual day to day workings of the Congress, Presidency, and Supreme Court would have been nice to encounter early o n. At 65, it’s a bit late.

.

Anyway, a criteria would have to be established to define what “our leaders” means. My first stop was the House and Senate (Obama rocks, but I’m biased). The Supremes, not the soul group from Motown, have passed some very interesting laws over the past fifty years. For me, I started with the African American Senators and Representatives. See Google, Wikipedia Congress Members (currently there are 64 Republicans and 44 Democrats and 2 Independents In the Senate as of 08-28-15. How many of you knew that or cared to know that? I didn’t. Me, Ms Politics As Unusual. I hope you all know there are 50 states and 2 Senators each are elected to the Senate from each state. I knew that. I applaud the 2 Independent Party candidates who took their states. It demonstrates that the Democrats and Republicans are not reigning 100% supreme with the colonies. I ran across some interesting Party names historically and list them for your consideration (should you wish to understand the background and precedence of naming your own party should you wish to run outside the Dems and Reps Parties: Independent, Liberal Republican, Unionist, Unconditional Unionist, Free Soil Democrat, Prohibitionist, Progressive, Silver Party, Populist,  Readjustor (3 from Virginia in 1800’s). Note: Jessie Ventura, wrestler & movie star, won election to the House from Minnesota 1999 to 2003 as a Reform Party candidate. Go Minnesota!

.

This barely touches on who are leaders are, but the search through the website on US Independent Reps and Sens was informative which lead to the other party names and the folks who won election under them. Trends change and I wonder what happened to The Black Panther Party (BBP)– the survivors who were not murdered or co-opted. The New Black Panther Party was formed in 1989 and is denied legitimacy by Huey P. Newton, co-founder with Bobby Seals of the original BPP, stating they do not adhere to the values of the heroes of the BPP – probably a reference to their affiliation with Communism (socialist principals that few U.S. citizens understand, have studied, or ever will study). We are so gifted at accepting media, government, and military (including police and local leadership) definitions that we do not take the time or make the time to investigate the original documents. By raise of hands, how many of you have read The Communist Manifesto? My case is most likely proven. Marxist-Leninist literature is thick with economics and propaganda which makes it difficult to sustain as part of any reading list unless you are taking a degree in the historical development of Russian and Chinese Communism. I check in on Putin, who has caved on interactions with the “West” and given in to the Communist Party hardliners who want land dominance – hence the recent invasion and dominance in the Crimea with further expansionist goals. Arctic and undersea oil sites are in contention with      Russia claiming ownership (clashing with China and several Island nations who claim territorial rights).  But I digress (I tend to default to my latest area of study and interest).

     Leadership, not a lot of African Americans are selecting NBBP or BPP candidates on ballots, nor are they any longer going in massive numbers to join The Black Muslims. Ah, those were the good old days and without Malcolm X and Elijah Mohammed’s oratory, those movements lost lots of followers, but not necessarily their sympathizers. Where are our leaders who will risk martyrdom might be a better questions to raise here.

.

Leadership requires sacrifice and the “smart” and “exceptionally intelligent” or “genious” or “brilliant” USAMs (United States Americans) are aware of the personal risks of using their knowledge and abilities to challenge the powers in office and those running “things”. Better to be a CEO and collect 20 to 80 million a year, or found a company (corporation conglomerate) and be in the top 1% of the country’s wealthy. Let’s see: sacrifice and eating crap from inferior minds with no clue, or making billions? In search of leaders? Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are on the top of my list after Barack Obama, of course. I am not a fan of the Billionaire’s Club of America. I applied for membership, but my bank balance was a bit low.

.

Academia is where the true leaders of USAMs are in residence. Scholarly minded, uber smart, they sit at the head classes and posts in Ivy league universities and majorly famed colleges and universities (defined as how many presidents they have graduated, how many Nobel laureates, academy award winners etc). They are safe barring accidents, but not a lot of Phd holders die from bullets  or snipers (that we know of). All of us can name at least two PODUS’s (Presidents of the United States) who have either been assassinated or shot at. I offer: Kennedy, John Fitzgerald and Lincoln, Abraham (don’t know his middle name). Regan was shot at and they hit Brady. As leaders in general go: Malcolm X, Martin, and Bobby Kennedy are examples that jump out of history’s pages. I was recently asked about where have the leaders gone?. Answer, they are there, but the media quashes them – the popular and secular leaders (bad p.r. or no p.r.) Heads of popular movements like The BBP or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference icons are fodder for the media (sensational and sell newspapers and poll well with tv viewers) and work their way into the USAMs’s permanent memory by way of shear repetition of those names and the activities they symbolize. (Trump Trumps Republican Candidates) a case of repetition and money for p.r. and interviews an travel and all the rest of the hoopla. Sound bite master – only the message alienates most voters. Perot had a similar following – why – because it is America and we are free to choose our leaders.

.

But is this the true definition of leadership? Of course it is, how can you lead without followers. Sponsor a Million Man March (dissing women of course but counting them in the final tally of how many showed up) and you declare leadership by meaningful, even significantly news worthy, actions. Louis Farakhan rocks, by the way, because he offers an alternate and audacious voice as spokesman for Aframs (African-Americans). Does he speak for me? U bet he does. He was all over Ferguson – see videos on Utube and via Google. He studies and takes the risk of assassination to speak truths he has discovered during his study of the world. He weighs in but instead of him on talk shows we get Cornell West (another brilliant scholar who I consider a hero). Odd, strange of personalities, egomaniacal, outrageous – necessary in the U.S. to grab news headlines, but what he says is important and should be listened to by all who seek something to contemplate pro or con. Not an act, thinking and influential spokesperson, Cornell. Every U.S. social-political aggregate as a polarized political forum has such spokespersons including the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). There is an active Nazi Party at operation here too, but the Jewish Defense League keeps them off the main screens and themselves out of the media effectively (for obvious reasons). Jewish leadership is not a high priority in the U.S. but Israel’s leadership is as American as apple pie. Excellent leadership, as in effective leaders, cast the camera and public eye elsewhere so they are not disrupted from the work they conduct for their group. There is a lesson to be learned here. To be an effective leader, fame has a price, a distraction from the job of choice. This could be why the leaders are hard to spot. I still am nursing the theory of afraid of assassination.

.

Leaders sit in little rooms and decide the fate of millions of people and billions of dollars. We as USAMs do not give a lot of thought to real leaders. We don’t know any (or many) because they are mostly behind the scenes. Their organizational organs and think tanks promote their ideas and orders to keep them from view. Scholars track them. Few others are interested in the minutia of what powerful individuals do and how much influence they wield in American politics. Are they leaders? You betcha!

.

Leadership in the guise of special interest groups or professional lobbists might be a great place to explore who is a leader in this country, and many of them were not born here and are not U.S. citizens. But “our leaders” as a definition may transcend our country tis of thee barriers. The latest wave of organized lobbyists are those who promote U.S. Corporate interest abroad. Multi-Nationals as a group equal leaders. Follow the money. (Money is speech, the Supreme Court said so.) Corporations, according to The U.S. Supreme Court, are considered people with the rights of U.S. citizens. This was an historically major turn of events that most USAMs do not know or care about. Think of the ramifications, especially their protection under the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the land. To sue a major corporation now requires lots and lots of money because lawyers are fighting not for an artificial entity, but a citizen. Their bankrolls alone will end many of the suits against them from other citizens like you. Scholars can debate other benefits, ramifications, privileges, and outcomes for corporate America, but inside those corporations are the true leaders of this country. They set the agenda, the direction, give the orders and those who want to keep “power” and be re-elected, simply obey. Those who have moral and ethical bents or are nostalgic for previous versions of across the table collaboration on direction (do not adhere to the established guidelines of leadership by invisible billions) get clobbered in the next election.

.

Popular opinion is mixed. Many believe corporations evil, many a substantive cornerstone of “American Democracy” or that they hold an advantageous power over elected officials at all levels, city, state, and federal. What is cloaked is the way representation works in a Republic. Opinion and polls are one measure of what “the people” are thinking periodically, but the power lives in the questions posed. i.e., Do you think Arabs are an enemy of the United States – Yes or No  (sensational slant) or How much are people who are citizens of Arabic Speaking and culturally oriented Muslim Countries frightening to you as a U.S. citizen? – NOT AT ALL, SOME, MOSTLY, ALWAYS.

The later has a bias toward thinking through the question. The former questions is biased toward popular opinions manifest in local media reports of stories on the middle east. (Beheadings of white male USAMs, bombing of place where there are USAMs). In a discussion of leadership, an understanding of who controls the media’s content as in “according to government sources” or “according to the Pentagon” or “according to the products that sponsor this news cast” is definitely a part of that discussion. Classism is a given here, but classism among sponsorship of information dissemination is a whole new ballgame (or an old one with a new look).

.

This is getting long, and I want to go read and write poetry. The idea of selecting a black Senator or Representative or even Barack would not be high on my topics for writing about in a poem, but perhaps it should be. I made a list of all the Afram Senators and Representatives currently serving. I could write a poem for each one after spending several days research on each of them, their bill voting records, their favorite lobbyist, the source of their campaign financing etc. But who would want to read it? We are not political entities that act on political matters that matter and hold no interest in the “other” folks running everything. It is who we are. Stupid and pampered USAMs – I’m one. A show of hands please?

.

I am being flip, but most folk do not vote. In 1960 63% of registered voters went to the poles and it has been declining ever since. Leadership, a real leader, would sponsor a bill making voting mandatory for all USAMs. No need for hunting down Census figures. No need to discriminate against anyone who wants to register – just a show of a USAM birth certificate and ID to prove you are a citizen of that state you wish to register in. Of course the names will be different, but burden of investigation should fall on the State and not the citizen (otherwise it is a poll tax and discriminatory – See lawsuits in South Carolina regarding voter registration proof of citizenship).

.

Mandatory. Leaders will come out of all kinds of unco-opted and owned places with the citizens actually deciding who represents them instead of the leaders of the media, political parties, and corporations. It’s a tough question, “Where are our leaders?” I think the original question posed to me assumed “popular” leaders, not actual USAM leaders. This is another iceberg’s tip and smarter brains than mine will have to take a stab at “true” leaders in the U.S. of A. My politics: I used to think that  a certain young and fine looking British prime Minister could lead me anywhere anyday, but he was co-opted and lost his appeal at the expense of keeping his post. Which he lost anyway, losing the popular vote and the liberal party being supplanted by . . . but that’s another leadership discussion entirely and I gotta go poet now.

Yours In Writing

Lady A

08-28-15

1247p