« Hold that thought | Main | Lexus Sales Meeting »

March 7, 2005

Sailing a different race

One of the many lessons I learned while sailing is that your tactics change fundamentally when you are leading a race. You have to protect what you've gained, and it can vanish in the blink of an eye. What's really difficult is that you cannot afford to make any mistakes. The sailors behind you (and there are many) are just waiting for your mistake, and will step ahead of you. Once you loose the lead you have to shift gears - it's no longer about protecting your lead, but attaining the lead.

Under President Bush's leadership, the United States has lost it's leadership position in moral authority. It's gone - there's nothing we can do about that fact, except change our tactics. We won’t be able to regain our leadership by “vigorous assertion”, nor will we be able to regain it by criticizing our accusers.

There is only one way to resume our moral leadership position. It’s to change the way we treat the people around us. The Bush administration has to come clean on what’s been done, and change it’s policy. Until that happens, we’ll slip further behind.

Posted by pgutwin at March 7, 2005 9:13 PM