Just how great?

Studying politics, like working with the meanest kids, has a tendency to sit heavy on the heart.

They're both similar activities. Both celebrating their meaner instincts. Politics, especially, in the last 10 years. Both pretending like their meaner instincts are their better instincts. Because it's easier than facing shortcomings, in both cases. And listening. And being decent. And having faith in people. And being better, generally.

All of the things we take for granted with nicer people. Loving people. The same people that the meanspirited scapegoat for the failures of their meaner impulses.

Because it's easier than having the courage to take responsibility for them, is the truth.

All of this has made the the world an enormous mess in the last 10 years.

And all of it weighs on the heart. Which is exactly what meaner folks count on to get their way when they want to do that. So it's not terribly surprising.

And the saddest consequence of all this for me and for the country, right now, I was realizing, tonight, is just how much it underestimates just how great each of us and all of us can be.

Given the one thing people have been desperately trying to avoid and more explicitly undermine than I have ever seen.

Our sense of common and higher purpose.

It's been a strange odyssey to watch a country and a world give up on its sense of common purpose. And to pretend like its baser impulses can somehow compensate for more genuine higher purpose.

And the saddest fact of all, in all of this, is how much this fails to appreciate just how great each of us and all of us can be. Given a commitment towards that end.

We may choose not to be great. Not to be good and decent to one another. Not to be generous and decent. To be courageous and humble. To be compassionate and thoughtful. To be forgiving and trustworthy. To be all of the values that we know, deep in our hearts, are humanity's and America's strongest legacy.

We can choose that.

And we can live with its fruits.

And we are, currently, living with those fruits.

And the craziness of it all is that it really does not have to be that way.

Because we can also support one another to aspire for our own greatness. And for greatness as a nation. And greatness in our commitment to the purposes of all humanity.

People really can be better. To let those who refuse to do so refuse. And to lead them in better directions. And to let those those take up the mantle of greatness lead us. And to aspire in the direction of greatness. Because it serves us better. Even when we fall short.

The rub is that it means humbling ourselves. And facing how we fall short. To take up greatness in whatever pursuit once again.

Especially in the pursuit of being a great human being. Great children and parents. Great spouses and loved ones. Great people making great contributions to our families and communities and world and the lives of others.

If there is anything I regret at this point in my life it is losing track of this commitment in my own life, too often. And losing track of my commitment and need to aspire in this direction no matter what anyone else is doing. To let them lead their lives as they see fit. For good and for bad.

To take greatness seriously in my own life. To see greatness in others. To encourage them and myself in more loving and constructive directions.And to let people choose otherwise if they so choose. Except when they are dangerous to others.

Because the truth is that greatness is within our reach. Mine. Yours. All of us. One day at a time. One choice at a time. One moment at a time.

And the rest of my life is committed to seeing and encouraging that in myself and others. To knowing the limits of doing so for anyone other than myself. And to love and appreciate deeply people in my life no matter how this pans out for any of us.

Just how great can we be?

As great as we can imagine. And make real what it conceivable and able to be actualized.

That is just how great I aspire to be.

And doing so does not need me to bemoan the ways that the world falls short somewhat and perhaps substantially less than I am encouraging myself and the world in the direction of its biggest, greatest horizons.

Many will choose to forgo those horizons.

Until their pride gives way to a humble appreciation for what is possible.

For me. For others. For the world.

And that is the only way forward that really offers anything real to satisfy the deepest sense of purpose and satisfaction in life, I am convinced.

Just how great can I be?

Just how great can you be?

Now's as good as time as any to enlighten the rest of us.

Leadership is building commitment to doing the right thing

Poll: Support Drops for Afghanistan War


Something is amiss, these days, in America and the world.

And America's discussion about the war in Afghanistan should be the big red flag for everyone that this is so.

The Afghanistan war, for those who were never fully convinced - I include myself, here, when the war was initially declared - really was and is the war of self-defense. This is in contrast to the Iraq war, which was a worthy war of choice, I believe, with a far-less-than-worthy effort to persuade others of that fact.

After Al Queda attacked on September 11th, the means of capturing or killing remaining fighters, likely to strike again if not contained or killed, was limited by the their ability to find save haven. They had one in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan (and western Pakistan) with no recourse to capture or kill them given a Taliban government that was sympathetic to the cause of Al Queda and not likely willing, in any uncertain terms, to cooperate with the United States.

Absent a U.S. invasion, Afghanistan not only had one of the more brutal and oppressive regimes, over its own people whom had no say over the matter, and towards Muslim people, for those concerned about the fate of Islam under liberal or illiberal governents, in the world. More immediately threatening to U.S. interests, it was a safe haven for Al Queda fighters operating and planning future attacks on the United States and other targets with impunity.

In other words, without invading Afghanistan, the likelihood of Al Queda remaining on the offensive and attacking the United States again was very high. By invading, Al Queda played mouse to our cat and laid low in hiding (and we had a better chance of capturing Bin Laden and the lot) and a terribly ugly and brutal regime gets taken out, in the process, and Afghanis could elect a government of their choosing democratically. Just as we take for granted in the good ol' U.S. of A. as we debate the very issue.

Now, that is the argument that should have been made and debated in 2001, and was, in part, when America first invaded Afghanistan.

And the fact that we didn't discuss and debate this invasion or the invasion in Iraq nearly thoroughly, respectfully, open-heartedly, and open-mindedly enough - and with more focus on doing good than looking good - has everything to do with why the domestic politics is such a mess, on both this war and the war in Iraq and most issues America faces, right now.

So lots of fucking up in this war, the war in Iraq, and all around. And mostly, contrary to popular opinion, not around the military strategy - where America has always had overwhelming force - but around the political matters - in how we understand and engage the people issues, more honestly - and our failure to have an honest and respectful enough discussion and debate about all the people matters that matter.

And in a way where everyone did exactly what everyone is so loathe to do today.

To admit the only and most important honest thing they could possibly admit about anything of any import.

That they may not have all the answers. That they could be wrong. And that, thus, there was plenty to explore, with a genuinely open mind and heart, to arrive at better decisions.

All of this is true. And all of this has created an enormous clusterfuck in Afghanistan. And Iraq. And on most issues that America faces right now. Largely because we've all be acting like assholes and acting like acting like assholes has no consequences when it so clearly has.

So, now, that's where we're at, today.

Now, 9 years later, with nearly 10 years of emotional and upsetting debates about both these wars and any number of issues that matter to people, and with a long war with lots of Americans dying, people have grown war weary.

Understandable. Especially when a lot of folks are not completely clear on the stakes in this war. And many of them may just disagree with me, no matter how clear I am that the stakes are too high to just pull out and supposedly cut our losses.

What's not understandable is all of that meaning that America pulls out of the one situation where self-defense was and still is (as far as I know, Osama Bin Laden is still at large) the real legitimate reason to go to war. And to do so knowing that doing so will leave Afghanis to the devices of those brutal thugs who used to rule their country, in league with the very brutal thugs who killed our people and were the reason for us being there, in the first place, and will do so, again, as soon as they have the inkling they can get away with it.

What's not understandable, in other words, is quitting. Because it's hard.

All the while, pretending what tough little badasses we are to the rest of the world.

It's fuckin' weak, is what it is.

It's fuckin' pathetic.

And it is exactly what America has become in the early 21st century the more we march down this dark path we've been on.

America wants to prove how tough she is.

Stick it out and do the right thing.

And stop making excuses for why we don't wanna.

Or why the fact that we don't wanna somehow means that the people who do want to stick it out need to follow suit. All to suit your ego. And pride. And whatever damn fool impulse drives you, these days.

In other words, perhaps Afghanistan can be a genuine restart.

An opportunity for America to do what she has been failing to do for the last 10 years.

To lead.

And leadership meaning building commitment to doing the right thing.

Patiently. Honestly. The way real, sustainable commitment of any kind is built.

Even when all the popular winds point otherwise.

I don't care how weary we feel.

We went here for the right reasons. And we're fighting there, now, for the right reasons.

And if we leave, Afghanis go back to a brutal, barbaric existence.

All so we could pretend how tough we were.

But not really be tough when it counted.

Meaning, resigning ourselves to being a nation of whining little pussies.

All the while crowing about how fuckin' tough we are.

And then bailing, when the going gets tough.

Leadership is calling out that bullshit for what it is.

And building commitment to something genuinely better.

And we are all welcome to follow anything else that we please.

But pretending like doing so is really our best, or toughest, or most thoughtful selves is really just bullshit. No matter how you try to spin that one.

And if America leaves Afghanistan. They deserve to be known for the fuckin' whiny, tough-talkin' little pussies they turned out to be.

And no amount of talking our way out of that one will make anything different from what it really is.

America is not a country of whiny, tough-talkin' little pussies.

Not for long, that is.

Because we have what it takes to be better than all that bullshit.

And we're gonna stick it out in Afghanistan and demonstrate that's true. And not just talk it.

Doubt that? Watch, motherfucker.

And you know why, captain?

Because nothing else would be worthy of the name American.

And, in my book, at least. That still means something.