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Welcome to the January 2008 edition of the LeadAmerica Alumni Newsletter! FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK Resolute
Leadership To be resolute, to resolve, is to be set in purpose or opinion, unwavering and undaunted in both position and practice. Clearly, the American practice of annual resolutions betrays a certain flippancy towards the understanding of this term. The correct understanding requires, indeed demands, the ability to choose between varying entities. If you make a resolution, you are “resolving”. Simply, you are assuming that A is to be preferred to B. It is better to be out of debt than in debt. You are intentionally or unintentionally making a value judgment. The eminent 18th Century British statesman Edmund Burke defined this ability as “moral imagination” and argued that it was one of the rarest and most important abilities for a leader to possess. The individual who develops a moral imagination becomes a “visionary”. Resolute leadership, therefore, is vision based upon moral imagination. A resolute leader is one who truly understands what is and can therefore truly see what must be. This is the ability to conceptualize the world differently than it currently is. While others may be bewildered by the challenges of the present, the resolute leader is focused upon the future opportunities derived from those challenges and possesses the ability to choose the correct path. The resolute leader remains steadfast in purpose and is undaunted by skeptics or critics; the vision has a moral category that cannot yield to unpopularity. Unfortunately, the scarcity of resolute leadership is perhaps the greatest threat to modern Western Democracy. As the eminent Classicist Victor Davis Hanson noted in his recent book The Soul of Battle, “In present-day democratic society, we may simply have forgotten that there finally must be a choice between good and evil, that the real immorality is, as the Greeks remind us, the failure to exercise moral authority at all.” As Edmund Burke would have agreed, a moral imagination is the necessary mortar in the foundation of liberty. As you contemplate your resolutions this year, resolve to develop your moral imagination and thereby become a resolute leader, an architect and apostle of hope.
We want to know what you think! Who is responsible for ending the current writers strike? Studio Executives? Striking Writers? Both? Read on to learn more… Did you see Grey’s Anatomy last week? …No, you didn’t. No one did. Since November, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been picketing against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over various contract issues. The strike is now in its third month, and the entire country is beginning to see the effects. Pre-taped episodes have run out, and with no one on the job to write new ones, the networks are scrambling to fill the time. A key issue in the debate is how to fairly compensate writers for broadcasts in “new media.” In simpler times, any time a re-run was shown on TV, the writers received a modest payment, or residual, for the episode. However, our current generation lives in an on-demand world. With streaming video over the internet, downloads from iTunes, and DVD box sets, old episodes of our favorite shows are available whenever and wherever we want them. These “21st Century Re-Runs” are taking over the market, and writers are arguing for a larger share (currently 4%) of the profits from the sales of DVDs and advertisements included in the web videos. Producers insist that these new markets are untested and therefore at this time it is impossible to determine a profit sharing formula that is fair to all parties. While nine weeks may seem like a long time, the last WGA strike in 1988 lasted for five months, and current strikers show no intent of backing down. Complicating matters, studio executives have refused to return to the bargaining table while strike actions are still underway. Both parties are in a standoff to see who will blink first, and the American people are left with few viewing options beyond unscripted reality television. Moreover, reality TV will likely become more off-the wall, as ideas originally deemed too bizarre may now have a shot on the empty airwaves. Eventually, one side will have to give in and offer concessions to the other party to restart negotiations. The question is, who should crack first? In the meantime, I’ll be watching So You Think You Can Skydive? We want to
know what you think! Who is responsible
for ending the current writers strike?
Studio Executives? Striking Writers?
Both? To cast
your vote on the LeadAmerica
online poll and view last month’s poll
results, visit www.lead-america.org/alumni.
STUDENT
OF THE MONTH
Black History Month What are you doing this month to celebrate Black History? For more information on Black History Month and what you can do to participate, visit http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/. Big
Brothers Big Sisters Week – February
4th to February 8th For more information about the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.bbbs.org. National
Crime Prevention Week – February
4th to February 8th What are you going to do to help prevent crime in your community or school? For more information on national crime prevention week and crime prevention, visit http://www.ncpc.org/. Valentine’s
Day - February 14th A
Few Service Project Reminders…
Ms. Alexandra D. Camp has been with LeadAmerica for over three years and currently holds the position of Senior Program Coordinator and Conference Logistics Coordinator. She has a Bachelors in Comparative National Security Studies from American University in Washington, DC. Flying High with LeadAmerica I have always loved flying, whether it was in a private plane or on a commercial airline. When I was little and took a flight, I used to ask the stewardess if there was going to be turbulence during the trip. Without fail, the stewardess would smile and say, “Don’t worry sweetheart, the pilot will make it a nice smooth trip for you.” They never seemed to understand that I wanted the turbulence. I loved the way I felt each bump of the plane when it was tossed around by the wind. Even today when there is turbulence when I am on a flight a wide grin spreads across my face. Being in a private aircraft allows you to truly feel a part of the plane all the time, to enjoy every nuance of the plane’s movement, whether in take off, landing, or simply darting through the sky. Flying has always been something that has made me happy, and I hope that you will join us at this program this summer to try it out for yourself.
BOOKS
IN REVIEW Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce
and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery Perhaps one of the greatest cultural evils in all of history, the African slave trade was widely accepted as both an economic necessity and a political right in 18th Century England. Metaxas’ book chronicles the epic fight against and eventual defeat of this human industry. One man stood against one of the most accepted political and economic evils of his day, inspiring and influencing the populace of England, though he risked everything, and won. That man was William Wilberforce. As Metaxas notes at the beginning of his biography, “Wilberforce presided over a social earthquake”. On July 31, 1834, 800,000 British owned African slaves were finally set free. Britain had abolished the slave trade in 1807, and now the institution of slavery in the British colonies met the same fate. These events had been set in motion by one man’s decision on May 12, 1786. That man was William Wilberforce and Metaxas brilliantly relates his story. Following a discussion with William Pitt, the current Prime Minister and William Grenville who would succeed Pitt as the next Prime Minister, Wilberforce decided to fight for the abolition of slavery. Wilberforce began a political, cultural and economic battle that would literally consume the entirety of his remaining life. Though others in England were opposed to slavery, there was no leader, no voice in Parliament to trumpet the cause. Wilberforce would fight for nearly 50 years on the same issue. Enduring public humiliation, death threats, near death from exhaustion, the abandonment of many in his social class and defeat after defeat on nearly every bill related to slavery that he placed on the floor of Parliament, he emerged triumphant in the end. On July 26, 1833 a now bed ridden and aged Wilberforce received word that the bill to end slavery in the British Empire had finally passed. Within 72 hours, the embattled William Wilberforce was dead. Metaxas has provided a fitting biography of a heroic figure. However, the most important element that emerges from even a casual reading of Metaxas’ work is that the power of one life sacrificed on the altar of significance cannot be underestimated.
2008
ALUMNI REWARDS PROGRAM The 2008 Alumni Rewards Program will go into effect on March 15th, 2008. All claims under the 2007 Alumni Rewards Program must be redeemed by March 14th, 2008. Points not redeemed by March 14th, 2008 will be carried over into the 2008 Alumni Rewards Program and subject to the revised program criteria. NOMINATE
A FRIEND! APPLY
FOR A LEADAMERICA
SUMMER INTERNSHIP!* * To be eligible for an internship position with LeadAmerica, applicants must complete one full year of college by June 1st, 2008.
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