An Honest Days Pay for an Honest Days Work

It began a long time ago. I had been allowed the good fortune to fulfilled a military obligation in
the short time span between two wars, complete a limited education that I had been proud of
and seek out an honest days pay for an honest days work. The early, but unfulfilled promises of
"The Age of Camelot" had begun to take form under the guidance of a new, and young, president,
and I had discovered the pleasure and the privilege of working for a man who had survived the
great depression, taken his part in a long war that included the brutal battles for control of Monte
Casino that had raged in Italy for four months during WW11, gone on to complete a challenging
education that included a PhD in microbiology and earn his living in an honorable profession. The
small scar left from the wound that had taken out a few of the man's teeth during that war provided
a more visible evidence of those battles than the demons on the mans shoulders that came with the
injury.

The doctor had been a true mentor, that rare individual capable of the awesome patience required
while the student is learning; He was also the watchful teacher who would stand along side his
students, pushing, pulling and cajoling in the attempt to assure a disciple's success. I always talk
about this man softly and with respect, and when others might ask where he went, I reply simply
that the gentleman had "passed on" along with an era when such virtues were more common and
far more appreciated.

The more accurate truth is the teacher had launched a single bullet of small caliber into an area of
his brain just forward and only slightly above the right ear when everything he believed in and
worked so long for had been taken away by others with more personal goals and private logics.. I
worked for the man for ten years and have been looking for another boss, a mentor capable of
similar values and beliefs, but one who has managed to survived the insanities of present times and
the courage to go on.

I have been looking unsuccessfully and more desperately for a new boss for a long time. It may be
that the poise and dignity that my first boss was so capable of are the products of overcoming
adversity in the company of good friends. This man like so many of his generation sure as hell had.

The years of honest effort resulted in what the historian David Potter has described as a Culture of
Affluence that men like my teacher made possible. If the truths presented by this historian are not
complete, they are becoming more unshakeable" The evidence now suggest that we have enjoyed
too much for too long and are now being required to pay a horrific toll for the "March of Folly"
that the years of affluence have allowed us to fall into. We have become lazy, avoided the need to
overcome adversity and rested on whatever laurels we might.

Committees and bureaucracies now make decisions and provide suitable hiding places for
leaders who lack the courage and conviction to pound on tables with the passions of an anarchist
while making decisions based on what ever provides the greater good for the greater number.
When the historical record that deals with the records of men who have the courage to challenge
the inane decisions and circumstances of earlier times is reviewed, we end by witnessing the final
moments of men like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Lincoln and we are now more able to
understand why courage is necessary

Bringing about change for the common good is not an easy thing, but without the Reverend King,
we would have been confronted with the rage, anger and frustrations of even larger segments of a
black community led by The Black Panthers, who, tiring of being described as second class
citizens, and frustrated by the unaddressed need for change, launched angry attacks on the well
being of so many. Without Lincoln, we may well have faced the loss of a union and the
continuance of an ugly slavery trade, and without Gandhi, the loss of conscience by an entire
nation.
Our country, like all countries falling on "hard times" is now obliged to resist the "Escape From
Freedom", the unwillingness to accept responsibility Eric From described in his book by the same
title that in large part explains the rise of Hitler, a man described as having few morals and little
intellect but driven by insatiable ambitions made possible by a "policy of appeasement" that took
form "while England slept". The world stage does not require the appearance of another Hitler or
another vain CEO of a large company who would rip off their workers, shareholders and
consumers; nor does our country prosper under politicians who betray their supporters, lawyers
who steal from their clients, health care systems that prey on the weak, or "criminal justice
systems" that are indeed criminal..

It does require the summoning of a personal courage and the willingness to confront this kind of
leader who would grasp power from the chaos going on around us in the pursuit of a personal logic
and a private agenda If we are to succeed, we are obligated to assume responsibility for our
actions and reaction and the courage to confront the mixture of greed and fear going on around
us that is the basis of totalitarianism and the corruption that is so much a part of it.

Difficulties in any organization lie at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid not at the bottom. Ask the
coach of any sports team about the fortunes of wining and loosing. Many of our present leaders
require a kick or a bullet in the butt; many of our fellow voters require something similar. The one
thing certain is with out changes at the top, and without the selection and recruitment of honest
men and women capable of a more honest leadership, each of us will continue to have a lousy
boss for a long, long time.