A Question for the U.S. Re: Leadership and the Rules of Our Playground
Maybe it’s the literary geek in me, but I find that I read the world like I read literature. When I watch and listen to the world around me, I tend to analyze what I see and hear through the lenses of simile and metaphor: “This reminds me of this experience, so this is probably going to happen, or I should respond this way, or I can expect this to be the result.”
I find that interpreting the world around me through a similar “story” of experience helps me understand the truth in what I see and guides me in deciding how to respond. It forces me to view things (if I may use playground terminology) not from some “side” that I have to emotionally protect but from a more balanced, hopefully rational viewpoint.
Well, I was looking around on Gallup’s website the other morning, and I came across this survey chart: “Gallup’s 2015 Honesty and Ethics of Professions Ratings.” Listed from most honest and ethical to most untrustworthy and unethical, this graph shows the opinions Americans hold of different professions.
The professionals Americans feel are the most honest? Nurses, pharmacists, and medical doctors.
Can you take a guess at who we feel are the most dishonest and unethical?
Lobbyists.
Telemarketers.
Members of Congress.
I thought of the political arena we are all in at this moment, and I suddenly thought of my childhood, and…remember the playground? That arena of prospective joy or chaos we all had to play in every bloomin’ day of the school year?
We, my friends, are still in it.
Do you remember the kid in your class who was a total jerk to everyone, the one who used his size and outrageous, imbecilic behavior to overpower the whole class’s collective personality and chemistry? The kid who stripped the classroom of every shred of dignity it had with his loud, inane rudeness that stirred everyone’s pot?
And how on the playground, when his world opened up to not just include his classmates but all the kids of the school’s domain, he would become so overwhelmed with the power handed to him by all of us too scared to stand up to him that he would regularly go on explosive tirades of fury or fists that would have the kids talking for days.
As part of your class, he was a never-ending frustration and embarrassment for all, the time bomb everyone was just waiting to go off. No one liked him. No one trusted him. But he held the power because nobody believed they could ever be the one to get him to shut the hell up.
And there wasn’t just him.
There was also her.
The girl that had everyone on their knees the first day of school. She smiled. She glittered. She wooed. She befriended.
And then Week One was over.
She still glittered and smiled. But she lied. And lied. And twisted. And connived. Girls looked at the “cool chick” power she wielded with awe but soon realized she was cool to the extent that she broke a mold of sameness in our little world––and that was it. Everyone was soon just waiting for the axe to fall — right across our necks.
On the playground she was only worse. She wove a network of wannabes who did and said anything to stay her “friend,” simply because they were terrified of becoming Next on her list. Her spies were everywhere, but they all knew she would unflinchingly stab them in the back a thousand times the next minute, if only to get what she wanted.
As a part of your class, she was a nerve that no one wanted to touch. Peace in the classroom was replaced with tenterhooks. But she held the power because nobody believed they could ever wield a power that would ever stand up to hers.
And, frankly––most likely––nobody probably could have. Not all Davids defeat their Goliaths. Some personalities really do know how to gather immense power that is––well, overpowering.
But what if a bunch of us kids had stood together? Told the Jerk and the Liar that we had had enough of their crap, that we weren’t going to put up with it any more, that we wanted our classroom and playground back. Used the power of many against the power of one (and their teetering accomplices) to regain our dignity.
That would have been an entirely different story.
Can we change the ending of our playground story today?
It’s all the same. Our nation is our playground. It’s ours. And those who are bullies and liars and mean girls are claiming it as their own personal stomping ground.
And we’re letting them.
We are letting ourselves be persuaded into thinking that those who demean, slander, lie, connive, deceive, and intimidate others will somehow act differently and get our country to a better place when they are given power, despite all the behavior we are seeing in the classroom and on the playground.
We must remember: The Rules don’t work that way.
The Rules of the Playground tell us this:
- When we treat others how we want to be treated––with kindness and respect––the playground is safe, free, and forgiving.
- When we expect ourselves to be treated differently and intimidate others into doing so––the playground is unsettling, a waiting snare, a frightening force to be reckoned with.
- For those kids who try to do both on the playground, stay away. Far away. Two-faced people cannot be trusted.
We the People cannot afford to forget those Rules, no matter how tired we have grown of the system. We the People cannot let our exhaustion become a crippling weakness that makes us give up and give in with a sniveling sigh and a shrug of resignation. Remember the kid who did that? No one had any respect for him, either.
What we can do is stand together as a classroom, as a people, as a nation and declare our allegiance to Our Country that we love by providing it with leaders that we know we can trust to be honest, respectful, and good, for all our sakes,
no matter the political party,
no matter the gender,
no matter the race,
or religion,
or bankroll.
We DO have the power: We the People of the United States choose our leaders. All of them.
Let’s use that power, and use it for all of our good. Let’s demand for and choose leaders that we can count on to be honest. To be ethical. To be pretty much blameless. There are still people out there who choose to do and be right.
Let’s find them. It’s time.
WE are the People of the United States. And we want our dignity back.
