Exerpt from Lee Iococca

Excerpts from Lee Iacocca's book
A friend just sent this to me and I hope you will read it. I think we all
need to read the book and do something!!!
Where Have All the 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 1970's 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 horse shit 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