Leadership is defined a couple of very simple ways: the capacity to lead, the act or instance of leading, and having an office or position to lead. Violence, according to the World Health Organization is defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation”
Leadership and violence are two aspects of society that reserve space tantamount to a library in my mind. If there are political leaders, church leaders, business leaders, academic leaders, and community leaders, why is there violence all around the city? The drug epidemic pushed onto the millennial generation through legal prescriptions, have created a mass of new criminal drug addicts? Why are they criminal? Because leadership, often in the forms of political leadership, did not evolve during the first two drug crises with compassion. Supposedly politically astute leaders criminalized heroin addicts of the 1970s, and crack addicts of the 1980s and 90s. The prison population exploded under the Clinton administration creating more prisoners in this Great America than slaves in the former America a century and a half ago.
Political Leadership responded with violence according to the World Health Organization. Let’s think about it. The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation. State sponsored police terrorism on black, brown, and poor white communities come to mind when I read those words. The most vulnerable of our populations, de-manned through police brutality, killings, and trying to arrest people who needed compassion and resources to remove addiction.
Leadership preached, through its political arms, that drug addicts, and drug dealers must be treated equally, locked up and buried for decades. Leadership, did not balance the power by providing opportunities to women through entrepreneurship, job and skills training, or even college tuition breaks to support women having to support households many times alone. Leadership created a God complex over society providing “entitlement” programs that simply keep people poor, under resourced, and undervalued in society. Leadership allowed the police, slumlords, and gangsters break down communities in such a way, that today, when the DOW is at its highest level ever, the majority of working americans make less than $50,000 a year.
Leadership has one obligation, to lead. When America is generating wealth, Leadership ensures everyone has a place to eat at the table. When the community suffers violence, leadership is there to stop the violence, and bring peace and justice. MLK Jr. says, “Whatever your life work is, do it well” It is time we rise and work for the well-being of each other, hold our leaders accountable, or simple select new leaders in the primary and generals of every election until Leaders reflect the Leadership the people need.
By Jacie Rowe