I think many people who read Cheryl Mabey’s article would be upset. For so long, people in our country have become disenfranchised with our leadership and continually blame the system and elected leaders for failing them. We have given so much power to our leaders that we allow ourselves to feel helpless and that our country’s issues are beyond our control. We continue to wait for some magical superhero leader to swoop in and make everything perfect. I’m inclined to agree with Mabey that this is a cop out.
By giving our leaders so much power, we do ourselves a disservice. In believing that we aren’t smart enough or resourceful enough or rich enough to fix the problems within our communities or our country we are thinking too little of our abilities. As Mabey states, “the persistent belief that ‘professionals’ or ‘experts know more and should tell others what to do paralyze many community initiatives” (315). When we think about it, who knows our communities better than we do? We are the experts and we must learn to challenge this idea that someone else can do a better job than we can.
But how do we do this? Firstly, we redefine what it means to be a leader. As noted by both Mabey and Gardner, we often conflate authority with leadership. You don’t need to have an official title to be a leader. There are informal leaders in so many places that are way more influential than the people we think of as leaders just based on their title. Secondly, we learn how to be a citizen leader. As citizen leaders, we must be knowledgeable about what we’re advocating for and how the system we’re working within operates. Then, we must take that knowledge and put it into action. Mabey summarizes it well: “knowledge is insufficient without action” (316). We have become complacent with complaining about our problems instead of taking action to fix them ourselves and we can’t afford to do that anymore. It is time that we recognize our potential as citizen leaders and utilize our potential to enact the change we keep expecting someone else to. The reality of the situation is that no one person will be able to solve all of our problems; we need to step up and do it ourselves.
I completely agree, why have we given so much power to leaders who do not know our communities like we do. It is time to stop following our leaders like everything that they say is the end all be all, we are all smart and capable of problem solving just as much as someone who holds a leadership position. I think it is defiantly time to take action as citizens and take back what the term leadership means and broaden it.