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Does Reform Come From The Top or From The Bottom

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Message Mark A. Goldman

Well this is a common question.  How do you change things?  Do you work to change the leadership at the national level or do you work to change things in your community?  Do you change things at the top or at the bottom?  Yes. 

It is very difficult to bring reform if people who don’t want reform are standing in the way.  And who doesn’t want reform?  Generally, it’s people who already hold the reigns of power.  And yet right now, who is standing in the way of reform?  We all are. Most of us don’t know it.  Most of us just can’t see it.   

One reason we don’t see it is because people at the top are standing in the way and they don’t want us to see it.  The problem is that we and the people at the top have the same consciousness, generally speaking.  We elect people who are very much like ourselves.  And so the people at the top behave just as we would behave if we were there.  You might not like me saying that, because it's not always easy to look in the mirror.  But once we do it's hard to deny the truth.

To break the cycle something has to change.  One thing that can bring about change is responsible leadership.  Leadership can come from anybody and, in a manner of speaking, from everybody. 

People who have power want to hold onto it.  Generally, they will not give it up voluntarily… even if we are nice to them… unless by being nice we mean we are willing to be subservient.  If we are willing to be subservient then they will be nice and let us play in their game.   

Electing people to office who have the same consciousness we have is probably the main difficulty with democracy.  Who, after all, is smart enough to vote for someone who has more integrity than they do or at least not less?   

Most people want to be in positions of leadership because they think that if they were only there, they could set things up so that everyone would do things their way, and if everybody would just do things their way, then everything would be just great.  

The problem is, when they get there, things don't work out great.  Too often those who get the positions they seek find they have been striving for an illusion.  Being in high office is not what they thought it would be.  They find that the only way they can persuade others to do things their way is to lie, hide the truth, misinform, or cheat.   After all that’s what they did to get there.  That’s the only strategy they know that works.  What they don’t realize is that it doesn't work forever. 

Everybody makes mistakes.  When people make mistakes there are consequences.  When people in high places make mistakes there are big consequences.  That’s why if you don’t have an enlightened, well-educated, well-informed electorate, things can go very wrong and democratic institutions are bound to fail.   

I have, in my writings, done my best to reduce things to their lowest common denominator so that anyone can understand if they want to.  In announcing my candidacy, I am offering to serve in a leadership capacity if people are really looking for leadership.  But let me tell you something about leadership.  Leaders can only be leaders when they are wanted and needed.   

If you look carefully at the lives of Martin Luther King and Gandhi, for example, history makes them out to be extraordinary individuals.  Well of course they were.  But what also made them extraordinary were the circumstances in which they lived.  What propelled them to leadership was the fact that they were asked to serve by people who knew enough to know that they needed and wanted help.  They were at the end of their rope.  Nothing else was working.  They were ready to follow someone who had a different vision.  And in the case of MLK and Gandhi, the people made very wise choices.  Not everyone wanted to lead.  It was a risky business. 

When they were asked to lead, these people were not famous, politically powerful, or wealthy. But people wanted leadership.  After all, what did they have to lose?    

In reality, it takes as much truth and courage to follow as it does to lead.  If you can’t recognize the truth then you won’t know who or what to follow.  And if you try to overhaul the status quo, you can be sure that you will have to face some difficult circumstances.  You will wither under the pressure if you don’t have courage.  In other words, if you want change, you have to be the change.  And you can be.  If you are reading this, then change is not that big a leap for you.  But you have to want it and until you do, these are just words on a page.

I don’t know if I can make it any plainer than I already have.  If you want things to get better, you have to get better.  If you want justice, you have to be prepared to be justice, choose justice, stand for justice.  And when you stand for justice you will have to stand against a strong wind because that wind is coming at you to blow you away.   

Others pander for your vote by saying what you want to hear.  I’m simply telling you the truth.  If you want the truth, you need to be willing to live in the truth.  I’m sixty-three years old.  I’m not as young as I used to be and I’m beginning to feel my age.  As far as I am concerned, time is of the essence.  But let’s be fair.  You don’t really need me. You could instead... be me.  Or you can find someone else to lead who will likely tell you the same thing I'm telling you, but maybe say it better.

But no matter who says it, when you are ready, you are not going to get to where you want to go unless you are willing to stand up for what you want.  And if you want justice you will have to stand up for it.  If you choose less you will get less.  People who are willing to say anything to get elected will do and say anything to stay elected.  If you compromise your integrity hoping that it will all work out in the end, it will not work out in the end.  Not if in the end what you want is a government operating out of integrity. 

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Mark A. Goldman is an author, financial planner and was a candidate for president of the United States in 2008 and 2012. His new book called "Starting Over" is available for download free as a pdf file at this address: (more...)
 

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