Responsibility to Lead!

Failure of Accountability--A  tremendous shortcoming in the world today.  Given a chance to hold rank, privilege, or responsibility, is it not common to see those entrusted with it to fail, to point fingers, and to blame others for what they did not do?  I see it all the time.

Do you know my greatest frustration?  I am sure that many others share my concerns as well.  It involves those in position of power who work daily to run our government and fail to do it properly or to hold themselves accountable.  How many politicians are "on the take", spend their time collecting benefits and privileges, and use their positions to advance themselves only to use the same position to deny any knowledge of problems in the very government that we sent them to Washington in order to run?

People in charge ought to have an abundance of intellectual curiosity. It should be mandatory. When you supervise operations and manage departments or people, your number one priority needs to be to root out problems, inefficiencies, corruption, and waste. It is incumbent upon authorities not be political or to be vindictive and vengeful. Everything must revolve around total accountability, and if something cannot be managed effectively, then it should necessarily be eliminated.

Having served in the Marines, I witnessed leadership, good and bad, first hand.  Mostly good, I gleaned lessons from my seniors, peers, and subordinates that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, indeed I use them everyday.  Although most of my experiences were positive, I had the distinct misfortune to experience the negative a time or two, and the consequences were tremendously adverse to those unfortunate enough to be in subordinate positions.  In fact, when subjected to negative leadership in the military, the consequences sometimes make the difference between life and death.

As a civilian now, I still see circumstances in day to day life where people choose not to be responsible.  Out here, bad leadership does not often lead to death, unless entailing the more dangerous elements of public service, but nevertheless, the negative consequences can be totally demeaning and hurtful to morale.  Why does it happen?

I own my own business, and failure to accept responsibility seems to be a common occurrence, whether it be a customer, employee, supplier, or myriad other people.  Of course, I have to deal with it on a daily basis; what else is there when you own your own business?  I take it like a Marine, and I move on to the next project inasmuch as I can do so effectively.  What I have learned in this life, as the sum of my previous experiences, is that in order to ensure it is done right, or at least the way you want it done, you must do it yourself, or at least accept the responsibility for getting it done right.

Why have government programs at all?  If the unavoidable result will always be dereliction of duty at worst or inefficiency and waste at best, then what is the point in government services?  Considering that the amount of money in circulation is finite, how much better would the money be managed if it remained in the pockets of the taxpayer instead of flowing into government coffers where large percentages will be doled out to wasteful departments, bloated government contracts, and pork barrel projects?  

Swimming upstream only works for salmon, and even then a vast majority of them get eaten by bears.  Don't fight inevitability.  Shrink the government so that we can all sleep better at night and not be forced to trust two-faced politicians with our money.