Reflections on leadership

Whenever I see people who can speak well or I think say great things, I take notice. That is true of a young man I wanted to speak with on Tuesday. I believe I mentioned that he wanted to know about standing in front of me, or just acting naturally. I asked him about his statement at an AmeriCorps meeting that he was thinking that disabled people had an asset and not a liability. I think he was thinking of our hearing ability, but that doesn't always "ring" true. I said our resourcefulness is one, though that springs to mind. He said there are prejudices and that I could do well to train people on some of these issues. At the Leadership Anchorage graduation, one of the projects was about mentoring young people from Youth correctional centers. I knew about that, because that was one of the areas for Martin Luther King Jr. day with AmeriCorps. I realized how connected I was in the community, keeping abreast of activities and initiatives. So, back to leadership. Leadership is about mentoring, delegating, seeing beyond the coating and surface of an individual. It is bringing out the best in others, and modeling that for them. It is not about personal attacks, but it can be observations. The young man i met with at NineStar said something like this: a small thinker thinks about people and personalities and I believe looks through the filter of people, the person who is in the mediocre category sees everything through the lens of organizations (perhaps affiliations) and the great thinkers look at life or issues through the lens of ideas. When people have gotten upset with me, it is because I do think of a big picture, global ideas, solving problems, and observation. My comments about different groups of people are more how they exclude others, or their point of view as having access to power and privilege puts them in a certain category. Three dirvers in a row, all fine people were playing religious music or words when I was on the paratransit Tuesday and Wednesday, and I believe that that is a private thing and we need to make that decision for ourselves. Religion, spirituality and politics are so personal, and can be emotional, but they do not have to be that way. I have talked about noteworthy Republicans, and Elvi Gray-Jackson once saw me when I was walking with my last dog Merry and helped me find my home one day. She also spoke in classes in Public Administration (budgets class) and was my mentor for Disability Mentor Day, and I have a great respect for her. I see people as individuals, and I try to understand their motives, hurts and anything else. Well, that's enough for now, blog fans. The Networking and marketing class is going well, but I cannot figure out Flash Player 10, and I do not like Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla seems to freeze up, and so does Microsoft Word. Oh, ,my poor computer. I would rather see the positive and the good in people, than dwell on the negative. Koraling Lynne