Law Religion Culture Review

Exploring the intersections of law, religion and culture. Copyright by Richard J. Radcliffe. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 31, 2004

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! The beauty of the annual calendar change (albeit perhaps merely superficial or symbolic) is that it provides an opportunity to reflect on areas to change, create, better and innovate. I embrace the challenge, and in the honor of the season have cobbled together my own list. However, the focus should be on solutions not just problem identification. For example, much of political discourse centers on problem flagellation. As I was driving today, I was listening to a political talk radio show (not Mr. Hewitt’s who was on commercial) where yet another problem was identified and belabored. It is not very helpful to rant about the “need”. In fact, it may be counterproductive to the speaker to the extent it causes listeners to be overwhelmed or at times angered by the scope and duration of the alleged problem, and the lack of power to address it. I think a true mark of leadership is moving quickly from identifying problems to designing, and then implementing, solutions. By contrast, a true mark of a nonleader is whining ceaselessly about problems.