“NO EXCUSE SIR”

            No excuse sir is the reply expected of young military officers in training and in service to their country. It is a quick and positive response to a question or situation in which the responder feels it necessary to take responsibility for his actions. This is a common trait of good leadership, being responsible for ones actions. One of the leadership principles taught at all military schools is “seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions”. What a concept! What a simple solution to the problems that plague the 21^st century American citizen. We are awash in people who only want someone else to be responsible for them. When I was a child I remember my father telling me that being a “dependent” was the greatest life in the world. As a 17-year-old “military dependent” who only wanted to be on his own, I had no concept of what he meant by his words. It seems that in today’s society success is measured by how much you can remove from the collective pool of your neighbor’s resources. I hear people bragging about this or that government program that they use to get extra money with which to buy drugs. I read about how we taxpayers pay for the health care of illegal immigrants when we cannot afford to pay for our own health care. There are no principles in play here, there is only greed and more greed, to get what you can while the teat is still wet. Soon the suckers will outnumber the teats and mother government’s breast will go dry. Why can’t our leaders see what is happening? Why do they continue to waste our resources (taxes) on things that do not make our country a better place? Instead they enact programs to support their friends and payback the contributors to their election campaigns. Another subject I have strong feelings about but will address at another time.

What is missing? What do we need to do to change the downward spiral we have been riding since the days of John F Kennedy? Kennedy was one of the last national leaders who had the courage of HIS convictions. Not the run-a-muck pollsters conclusions. The leaders of today are visionless responders to the mob. They swing this way and that way depending on what the pollsters have to say. They have no integrity and that is the central message of this writing. Without integrity there is no “no excuse sir”. There is no remorse for making a mistake. There is no taking responsibility for your actions. There is only spin and excuse. John Kennedy had a vision and the personal integrity to put it into action. Ronald Reagan had vision and leadership qualities that were remarkable. We have all seen or lived through the debacles of Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton and recently Bush 2. Men of character who when pressed against the wall reverted to excuse and denial. Why on earth would the most powerful man on the planet feel he had to lie about anything? What could he possibly lose by admitting he made a mistake and taking the heat for his actions? It’s all about ego and lack of integrity. A man with integrity would not have denied taping his meetings in the White House, or who did what in a blue dress. He would have stood up and recounted the truth, not spin or what his “handler” wanted him to say. Where has spin been a successful positive force? Nowhere, spin never produces anything positive. Clinton sent his wife into secret meetings to plan a take over of the American health care system. How could it possibly succeed? How would the nation accept a plan conceived in darkness and brought in the back door? Would a man of integrity have done such a thing? I guess it depends on what your meaning of “is” is.

The Clintons are revered today for their charisma and ability to spin words to a crowd. They are the darlings of the media who print or replay all the sound bites and spin they can get. They would rather give the reader a one liner with style than a paragraph of content. Integrity, where did it all go? Where did we leave it behind? Who is going to say “no excuse sir”?

I would like very much to convince someone with integrity to take up the challenge and bring integrity back to the leadership of the nation. To go to work everyday with the goal of making America the best possible place for her citizens to live the promise of the Constitution. To have the dream: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not just a place at the teat, but a chance to build something to be proud of, to have the opportunity to stand on their own. The challenge is almost so big that one man cannot comprehend it much less actually do it. The nation has been through 40 years of a constant march to socialism. That point in time where everyone is beholding to the government and no one can survive without some government agency touching their life. 

I have written this piece to offer the next great idea for a politician to grasp on to and make his own. To generate a campaign like Newt did when he authored the “Contract with America”. A campaign built on one word. That word is INTEGRITY and the return of integrity to the leadership of our Country. A man who will say “no excuse sir”, it happened on my watch and I am responsible for it. Therefore I will fix it and strive to never do it again. I believe that the American people understand that the lack of integrity is what is wrong with our political system. It was the single lacking trait that took down the banking system and Wall Street. The pursuit of profit is a good thing; the pursuit of outrageous profit is not. Trying to make “a killing” has become the past time of the American corporate boardroom. Not a reasonable profit but a monstrous profit, more than you can imagine. This leads to more greed and more greed until the lack of integrity leads to someone cheating and someone else letting the cheater skate without paying the price for his cheating. Read this as the Federal Government bailing out the cheaters with public money. I don’t care who it is, what they think they have accomplished, or what they promise to do. If you cheat, you pay, period.

No excuse sir.