Now that I got your attention, I wanted to talk about hypocrisy that we all probably went through or even acted upon. The majority or all of us LLC Leadership members are probably one of the most honest and law abiding citizens that aren’t involved in criminal activities due to the fact that we all are sort of leaders. However, we are still human beings and do things against the law sometimes. For example, I am pretty sure that every one of us has once in their life time “movie hopped” (definition). I never thought that it was a crime, but it is. I see myself as a law abiding citizen, but when I think back on the small things I did that didn’t seem serious could actually be labelled as illegal or a crime. I believe that even the best or most perfect leaders make mistakes consciously or unconsciously that would interfere with the law. Here is my question of whether small offenses should reflect on the character of a leader or should leaders be also seen as normal human beings? Some people criticize the President for “wearing jeans” or “drinking beer at a baseball game” or even making laws that go against the constitution (Obamacare). One has to see the human side of a leader, who is just a person like everyone else or do you see it otherwise? Just because I “movie hopped” in the past, did that make me a bad Junior and Senior Class President, where I went above and beyond all the events and community service projects? I am not promoting acts such as “movie hopping”, but wanted to put in perspective of it possibly or not possibly reflecting on my leadership status. Do different levels of crimes reflect more or less on a leader? Think about President Clinton. In my opinion, Clinton was an amazing president, who implemented Medicaid and helped the economy greatly. I didn’t think that his affair made him a bad president or leader. He shouldn’t have lied under oath and perjury is a serious offense, but I didn’t think that he should have left his office. I see both sides of the Clinton incident. How do you guys feel?
November 5th, 2012 at 10:39 am
I think that there needs to be a certain level of tolerance. Leaders are meant to reflect the people the are governing, and like you said, who here hasn’t bent the law either from speeding, movie hopping, or skateboarding right underneath a no skateboarding sign? In fact, I would be more concerned if I saw a “perfect” leader. To me, that is just and indication that they are hiding something from me because we all have something in our past if you dig deep enough. As far as presidents that bend the rules to get things done, my favorite example is Abraham Lincoln who went against Article II of the Articles of Confederation to say that states could not lawfully separate themselves from the Union (among several other violations of various founding documents. While he is certainly seen as a good man looking back, it is also true that he broke the law. This also raises the question “does following all of the rules mean you are doing the right thing?” In my opinion, no – sometimes the rules need to be broken when change is needed. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
November 5th, 2012 at 10:50 am
I think from first glance we see leaders as this elected or appointed kind of “god on earth” type character. Something in the world or the life of the leader makes us realize “He is only human.” “She is allowed to make mistakes.” I think we should look at minor offenses as human mistakes. Some people might take our generosity as a license to do more serious types of offenses.