A recent crossword puzzle clue yielded the word LEADER.  A word I see and use frequently.  I know the meaning of it or, at least, I think I know the meaning of it…So bear with me, please.  I started writing this post on the subway, without benefit of input from my friends over at Merriam-Webster.  I’ll check in with them later.

To me, LEADER  means someone who is in charge. Wrapped into that meaning is the implication that a leader is wise, intelligent, responsible, caring, and a whole bunch of other adjectives that, to me, paint the picture of serene, measured power. As this image formed in my mind, the question arose:  power from where? Who/what confers power on a leader?

We do.  We the people do.  And in doing so, we share the responsibilities of leadership.

Once more this country has the opportunity to elect a leader.  To make our voices and choices heard.  The auditions have been ugly, and, sadly, will most likely become uglier.  This ugliness is an obfuscation. While courting the individual votes, there is much being made of the massive amounts of money that are being funneled into the campaigns by powerful special interests.  I haven’t noticed that any of these special interests are particularly special to me.  Most of them, quite frankly, seem downright detrimental to me.

What troubles me about the process this time around are the repercussions of the profound disappointment of those who cast their votes with such hope and enthusiasm in 2008.  Those who truly, wholeheartedly believed that finally, finally, they were being given the opportunity to choose between good and bad instead of bad and worse. Those who saw their hopes and trust being eroded in what were perceived to be lost opportunities for progress.  In what they saw as a kick in the teeth for their troubles.  In what they felt was too little too late.

Yes, many feel bloodied…let us not add the travesty of “bowed” to that!

Leaders are only as able as their followers will force them to accountability.  In other words, it behooves each and every follower to say to the leader:  “I liked this thing you did, not so much that other thing…” every day! This must be a daily dialogue, not one that just takes place at the ballot box on election day! This is not some old friend we pick up with seamlessly after years of non communication.  This is someone we have chosen to lead us to a better place, to each one of our visions of a better place.  (S)He is not a mind-reader! It is our individual responsibility to speak our mind – always respectfully! – every day.

FDR said “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.”

The tools we have available to us to “make me do it” are so much more wieldy than what was available in 1932.  We have e-mail, we have telephones, we have fax, we have snail mail, we have demonstrations.  We don’t have to settle for the “one size fits all” of a single vote cast.  We have the opportunity, every day, of reaching out to express our voice.  And while the President may receive 40,000 e-mails a day and it may take some time before an intern reads mine – if ever – I still have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to communicate my thoughts and views to my community board, my school board, my council person.  To reach out to my state and federal representatives.  My voice is louder to each of them because they have fewer voices to hear.

It’s critically important to pay attention to local representatives because these are the ones who may someday be in a position to lead us on a larger scale.

We, the followers, have a much greater responsibility to lead than we have acknowledged, or that we remember. The moneyed interests would have us believe that it’s the money that’s important while all the while they’re muffling our voices.  Our leaders will lead us only as effectively as we lead them…and they still need our votes, or at least the pretense of our votes.

There are so many issues that need to be dealt with.  The good news is that each one of us doesn’t have to do all the work on all of them.  Pick one or two that are important to you and speak up on that.  There are enough of us to have critical mass on any issue, if we just commit to speak and guide.

It takes work to make a representative democracy work, and that work neither begins nor ends at the ballot box.  So get busy.  Speak up!  It’s not about unilateral agreement.  It’s about putting ourselves out there, fearlessly, and together finding a way…for now.

I’ve had my say – thank you!  What say, you?

p.s. Here is Merriam-Webster’s definition of leader.