Lee Iacocca tells it like it is.

Subject: Where Have All Our Leaders Gone? - from Lee !acocca


This old boy tells it like it is, I mean, like it REALY is!!





Where Have All Our Leaders Gone?
>
> Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from
> death throes? He has a new book, and here are some excerpts.
>
>
>
> "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
> Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder.
> We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right
> over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we
> can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.
> But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads
> when the politicians say, "Stay the course"
>
> Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the
> damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
>
> You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
> maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this
> country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free
> pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on
> a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge
> tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous
> business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.
> While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody
> seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of
> asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents
> and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about
> you?
>
> I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're
> not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
>
> The Biggest C is Crisis
>
> Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis
> It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory.
> Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a
> battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes
> tumbling down.
>
> On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other
> time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the
> ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat
> to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting
> there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on
> tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the
> quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to
> reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't
> safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for
> the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his
> bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our
> wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be
> okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get
> his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.
>
> That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what
> did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to
> Iraq; a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was
> President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher
> father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If
> that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
>
> A Hell of a Mess
>
> So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan
> for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit
> in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to
> Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health
> care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a
> coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are
> like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way These
> are times that cry out for leadership.
>
> But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the
> leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where
> are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and
> common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get
> the point.
>
> Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than
> making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
> We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and
> all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
>
> Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina
> Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
> hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were
> made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down,
> fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just
> crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what
> you're going to do the next time.
>
> Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
> restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
> that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to
> Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what
> are we going to do about it?
>
> Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down
> the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care
> problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are
> eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
>
> I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on
> your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is
> being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.
> What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will
> call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine
> for a change?
>
> Had Enough?
>
> Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying
> to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope I believe in
> America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some
> of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst
> crises: the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the
> Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the
> struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one
> thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines
> waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a
> better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a
> role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a
> call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not
> too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the
> horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough."
>
> Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. Copyright © 2007 by
> Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved.