Defining success.

I just read a nice oped which a DUer wrote about Condoleeza Rice and it inspired this post. Has the time come to redefine success in America? I mean, here's a black woman who made it up the ladder and even has her name painted on an oil tanker. But Condi isn't any different from anyone else who made it up the ladder the way she did. It was based on loyalty to the Chief and the ability to recite lies without blinking.

I see it in my community all the time. People who have fastracked to position of leadership, simply because they're willing to support a crooked network.

The problem we all face today, is that we can see the strings, and we can also see who is pulling those strings, but we have no real power to stop it. Why? Because America's idea of success is based on wealth. Once you have it, you can buy all the protection you need to keep it, if not with money, then by calling in favors.

Somehow, leadership today means finding a way to get the mission accomplished without letting the public know what the real objective is. It's a small inside circle that really knows what's going on, and there are rewards for that inner circle if they succeed. They also get protection from retaliation or litigation, if they don't.

So, taking a page from Obama's speech, Is this who we really are as Americans? Is this what we've become? A country who thinks that loyalty is more important than the truth? Where deception is better than trusting your countrymen?

our true god is gold. there are many who preach that by living a "godly" life, fortune will be bestowed upon you here on earth. money IS power. you can throw money at most all your problems. everybody's got their price we're told. at most human gatherings, the richest are revered. so contaminated are we by this lust for gold that we've allowed our elected representatives to buy their positions. it's blatant. we all see it. it is what it is.

to change the ugly situation we need the kind of courage the Egyptians showed to the world, but alas and alack we are unable to unite because they so skillfully divide us with this charade of party wars. eager to find an enemy, we chose sides and pretend we know why.

every weekday morning you see these fools on wall street with big smiles clapping for the opening bell that officially begins the day's trading. more money to be made. it's a disease me thinks.

who knows what happened to Condi. I see her the way you do, constipated with guilt.