Last night, I attended an event with former SecState James Baker. Secretary Baker took us on a sweeping tour of world affairs, but focused on the Middle East — Iraq, Syria, Israel, and others. His view was grim. According to Secretary Baker, we should prepare for an extended period of chaos. Some of the chaos, he argued, is a result of poor leadership.

After his lecture, Baker took audience questions. Most questions focused on ISIS and terrorism. You would have recognized the typical questions and the typical answers.

Although I tried, I was unable to make a statement followed by a simple question: “Secretary Baker, it seems to me that, in order for us to handle a chaotic world, our best people need to serve. One need only look at Albany or DC to realize that our best, brightest, and most decent people do not represent us. How do we make public service attractive to a generation of well-educated, well-meaning, well-experienced Americans?”

My question has a certain generational implication. How do we — those of us from the lazy and selfish generation — push our parents’ generation to make better public decisions? Do we work within the system or fight the machine?

This is what I know: no organization — company, government, or team — can be great without great people. That is why I wanted to ask Secretary Baker about making public service attractive. Because right now, in our public space, greed is coupled with mediocrity at exactly the moment we need righteous and skilled leaders.

Originally published at brendanhartdotcom.wordpress.com on May 7, 2015.