“The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever being one.” – Billy Connolly
As I signed my name on the ‘Locker Cleanout List’, I remember thinking to myself; I suppose I won’t see my friends for some time. By this time, school had been closed for a couple of weeks. A virus had appeared in our country and spread to my community a month prior and now we all had to finish the school year at home. Of course, unannounced interruptions to education were something that my generation had become accustomed to by this point.
Kunta Coin aka US Slavery Tax
Since I was a child, I believed firmly in the principles I was taught that America was built on the foundation that all people are created equal and deserved of the opportunity to pursue happiness while living on American soil. As I grew up, I held these teaching to be true without ever questioning or looking at the reality of the state America is in.
Warning: Long post ahead. May contain potentially sensitive/controversial opinions. This is a rant and not an informative piece of writing.
We're witnessing history in the making - a revolution for equality and justice. For some this revolution happening on our doorsteps, for others across seas.
Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis posted a savvy article in Rolling Stone, entitled The Unraveling of America. Its thesis that America's generally atrocious handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, under our "buffoon of a president," laid bare a decay and decline that already was well underway, in racism and income inequality, is well-evidenced and well-argued, and undeniable. But I disagree with Davis on two important points, one historical, the other up and coming.
The following is a collection of quotations, the words of two people. They are not talking to each other, but their comments have a certain commonality. One of the people was a world leader. The other is a world leader. The comments of each tell us which might be more fit to lead. One is an extraordinary person; the other is not. The idea of this exercise is not to determine who the speakers are (that’s easy) but to understand the skill set of a successful leader.
