Our frailties as a nation come in large part due to our penchant to seek to lop off the beauty of the tallest flower in the garden, often done by plucking one petal at a time.
We consistently fail to withdraw far enough to take in the full measure of a potential leader; examining the whole rather than a constant critical evaluation of the parts.
We seem to do this in a ritualistic, cultural schadenfreude, taking a societal pleasure in the death by a thousand cuts of those who seek to lead. Surely there is no growth that occurs in any of us, either as individuals or in the collective, by the injury of another who earnestly seeks positive influences on problems facing our country.
History shows us there is often a duality to greatness, especially when the toughest of times have demanded the strongest of leaders. Those who have most often changed the course of human events were frequently as wrong as they were right, if graded on the syllabus of issues, rather than the traditionally valued character traits of courage, stability, forthrightness, or innovative thinking.
While as a society we publicly mourn the passing of a great innovator like Steve Jobs, our society infrequently embraces leaders who put forth ideas that changed how we think, act or function, and those who were willing to take the risks required of entrepreneurs and scientists in order to test and advance progress.
Yet, the errors and frailties of those we consider great leaders of our past and present, easily show us that greatness includes an abiding sense of confidence and an ability to learn from errors of judgment while continuing to move forward positively toward progress and innovation. Is not the scientific method one of learning from trial and error, seeking in part to disprove that which is assumed to be true?
While many who would seek to lead are good, greatness is a scarcity. However, greatness is not self-evident; it must emerge through the tests of time and circumstance, forged by efforts to solve complex problems and resolve disputes that are vexing and on the surface unsolvable. But our common habit of deriding and diminishing those who seek to lead inhibits those who might emerge and prove to us over time to be far greater then we might have imagined.
We should begin to apprise those who would lead us by an examination of the whole person, not by a series of litmus tests and gotcha moments. And certainly we should cease our collective habit of falsely creating candidates' images based on our own views of who we think they are.
We should and instead focus on finding leaders we would desire to be ourselves. My childhood was filled with heroes, many often flawed, but heroes nonetheless. We do not allow heroes to evolve anymore -- and that is our great loss.
As an example of this I offer one actor of the 20th century who spans the transcendence of time, who rode through and influenced the geopolitical maps, the character of the Western world and the confluence of societal, historical and economic changes of the last century -- Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill was a singular figure in history, one who influenced the map of the world we see today and yet one who was powerless to alter societal changes that left many old institutions as historical relics while dramatic changes saw more altered in that century than in the rest of recorded time.
He was likely wrong as often as he was correct. He made critical errors throughout his career on matters of policy, politics and economics, and yet he was the exact right person at the right time to stand fast and hold closely the ideals of Western democracy at the brink of destruction.
If not for his words, wisdom and character at that moment in time, the world we know now would be quite different. Yet his persistence throughout his career, moving ever forward, challenging, taking great risks, all allowed him to stand where he needed to be when his country needed him.
We must dare to be great, as it does not come easy. To dare implies a willingness to chance both success and failure, to take risks, to step beyond what is comfortable to the realm of the unknown and uncertain, and to stand on moral grounds -- no matter the circumstance, upholding of utmost importance the value of honest-to-goodness character.
As an electorate, we must break free from our modern history of impetuous shopping for candidates only to be followed by buyers remorse shortly thereafter. We must decide for ourselves what we want to be as a nation and relentlessly pursue that goal by finding leaders with the qualities to lead and to serve and encourage them every step of the way.
We trim the bushes that offer us flowers by shaping how they grow from where they grow. We do not trim them by lopping at the roots or damaging their main stems. When we do that they fail to flower. Progress is shaped in a similar fashion, altering or amending as we move forward, perhaps changing what we do, but always with an end goal in mind.
Lets listen and evaluate the sum of those who seek to lead. There might be the potential for greatness there if we allow them to grow into greatness. Surely now is a time when we need greatness.
Guest column: Dr. Ed H. Moore is president and CEO, Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida.
