There are the cold-hearted and the warm-hearted, the kind-hearted and the cruel-hearted, the soft-hearted and the hard-hearted among us. Do hearts matter when it comes to leadership?
Author Clifton Taulbert, who grew up in Glen Allan, Mississippi, thinks so. In 1997, he wrote a book entitled “Eight Habits of the Heart” gleaned from the people who made a difference in his early life. “They told me I was good and that my life had a value.”
“The people in my small ‘colored’ community had a thousand reasons not to build, but they ignored that reality and built their lives for my benefit,” he wrote. “When one builds people, a good community will emerge, one that will leave its imprint beyond our front rooms, far beyond the classroom, beyond the gym, beyond our offices, and, in some cases, beyond geographical boundaries. The Eights Habits of the Heart practiced and lived out in our daily lives builds people and creates a good community.”
Those habits are nurturing attitude, responsibility, dependability, friendship, brotherhood, high expectations, courage, and hope.
Pause, now, and re-focus from this heartfelt exposition to our leadership in America today.
Are Taulbert’s eight habits the traits you sense from them? Or something different?
Back when sit-ins and demonstrations dominated the early 60’s in America, the person who led India’s movement to independence from Britain was the often quoted guru of non-violent civil disobedience. He inspired worldwide freedom movements as he campaigned for reconciliation among sub-continent religious sects. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at age 79 by a religious zealot.
Gandhi spent two decades of his early life in South Africa before he returned to India. It was there campaigning for the oppressed that he began to formulate his non-violent approach to change. South African History Online writes that Gandhi, “harboured no hatred in his heart” and was always ready to help people in distress. “It was this rare combination of readiness to resist wrong and capacity to love his opponent which baffled his enemies and compelled their admiration.”
Hmmm.
These days all sorts of Americans gather as they did in the 60’s to demonstrate against what they see as wrong in our society. They have a first amendment right to do so. The key is such assemblies must be “peaceable.” Most are, but some have escalated into violence.
One of Taulbert’s habits is brotherhood. He teaches that “brotherhood is the habit that reaches beyond comfortable relationships to extend a welcome to those who may be different from yourself.” Jesus told us to love each other including our enemies.
While violence is unacceptable, the leadership challenge today is to manage demonstrations using welcoming security methods that encourage peaceable behavior, not incite violence.
So, are our leaders’ hearts exhibiting a welcoming spirit and nurturing love for our demonstrating citizens who think differently? Are our leaders telling demonstrators their lives have value? Well, besides those who automatically label them animals, terrorists, agitators, and lowlifes.
Gandhi said, “It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
Regrettably, the heartless are among us, too.
“Be patient, bearing with one another in love” – Ephesians 4:2.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Bill Crawford: What Hearts Lead Us Today?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
WTH are you talking about, Crawford? No leader is calling mundane protestors animals. They are referring to the cities where building are burning, murders have skyrocketed, and where little children are being murdered. I'm pretty middle of the road, but there is a VAST difference between protests like walking on the Selma bridge and the anarchy in Minneapolis and Portland.
The ultra leftists are pushing for abolishing police. Don't think we have nutjobs in Jackson doing the same thing? They long ago emblazoned a billboard on I 20 with graffiti demanding "abolish ICE."
Maybe you should go watch the Jim Jordan 10 minute video about "peaceful protestors" that FatBoy Nadler suppressed. I don't care much for Jordan sometimes, especially when he plays attack dog on Fauci, but, you know what? He's absolutely right on the MSM covering up the violent protestors, who ARE animals and thugs. The ones who attack motorist, who have accidental discharges wounding their own misguided peabrains, and the ones who use cover of protest to shoot and to burn.
I don't worry so much about the soft hearts as the soft heads.
Appealing to emotion is a tactic of slimy leftists. It's a major part of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and has been ridiculed as a political tactic since The Enlightenment and as far back as the Rome.
Debates of Logic among learned gentlemen Senators was what greated good times and golden ages. Appeals to emotion didn't work as well before women and men without property or education could vote.
Now with television, social media, and universal suffrage, it is especially viable method of political persuasion. And many rightfully believe that Appeals to Emotion are why the world is on the brink.
We live in a time with you can't debate with logic that might cause a hurt feeling. That is leading us down a dangerous path as there is plenty real world violence that cares little about emotions or feelings.
" WTH are you talking about, Crawford?"
My exact same thought.
Must be either early stage Alzheimers or early morning vodka.
What are they even protesting? In the 60's the government had laws that prevented blacks from eating in restaurants, etc. The government was fighting a war in Vietnam. In the 60's protestors were demanding change to government policies. But today the only government laws that discriminate on the basis or race or sex are laws that hurt white men. No one is protecting those. Instead they are protesting some undefined 'racism' that if it even exists is not government sponsored or sanctioned. So what result do they hope for? Government mind control over people who disagree with them? Seems to me it's all about causing disruption before the election. It has no legitimate purpose. It's a failing party trying anything and everything to prevent the loss they have earned in November.
@8:04PM
The ones that are truly protesting have been protesting the same things that the ones in the 60's were protesting. Just because it isn't government sanctioned doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. It has taken on different looks now. You should be glad that you and yours are not affected by it, and therefore you do not have to deal with it. For those that do have to deal with it, they want change. The "Woe is me, I am not a protected species" snowflakes need to give it a rest. No one is discriminating against you, with the exception of those that may be in a significantly higher tax bracket or if you happen to be Japan or some other parts of Asia. Otherwise, life is like it is for the rest of the world's citizens. Quit whining and bitching and see the rest of the world's people as humans. You do not have to be friends with anyone, but being respectful of others goes a long way.
Clearly, this site is for the cold-hearted, cruel-hearted, and the hard-hearted.
Post a Comment