Seventy years ago, a convoy set forth from an island nation, to start the biggest battle for freedom the world had seen in centuries. With the latest in modern warfare technology, and the oldest of fighting pride, men from many nations plowed across the English Channel, to start the freeing of Europe, beginning with the liberation of France.

Seventy years later, leaders from every country that took part in that liberation, and some from countries that weren’t even born, as well as leaders who took part in that momentous war, stood on those beaches, and listened to the speeches, and remembered the sacrifices.

But it is not enough to remember the sacrifices, if you choose to ignore what happened. Good men and women turned a deaf ear to the pleas and cries of those who were suffering from abuse, torture, and death. A whole people were on the verge of annihilation, until the nations stood together to say “No, not another step, back you go!”. It is not enough to just read about the history. If you are a leader, you MUST, not you should, not you could, you MUST LEAD!!

Doing anything because the “polls” say you should, is not being a leader. Doing anything because your advisors all say it is the best thing, is not being a leader. A leader listens to the people, listens to their advisors, listens to other leaders, but the leader’s role is to make the strategic plans, make the decisions, and make his advisors adhere to what his vision is, not the other way around. To accept someone else’s interpretation of events, and make your decisions based on others’ decisions, makes you a manager, not a leader. A leader looks at all the options, weighs them, and decides for their self what the actions are to be done.

This week, we have had two contrasting events. We have witnessed the effects if what happens when leaders make the decisions based on their strategic plans, not on polls and advisors. And we have witnessed what happens when an individual makes decisions based on political gain, and puffery.

Will we resurrect the leadership we had even with GW, his father, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, or John F Kennedy? Or will our country become a footnote in history, destined to dwindle to nothing, given over to the barbarians, not at the gates, but sitting inside the gates, looking to tear us down from the inside out?

“We Must All Stand Together, Or Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”