So we have hero president George Bush selling his 9/11 pictures to raise money for his Republican party. Also, we have 9/11 super hero Rudy Giuliani who after helping to pass his New York mayoralty to billionaire Michael Bloomberg is now working for Merrill Lynch. Today, we find that Merrill Lynch has been fined $100 million as a result of fraudulently pushing up selected stocks, and we also find that mayor Bloomberg is a subject of an investigation as he has installed his own Bloomberg flat screen computers at City Hall and given a job to his daughter. Further, we find out that Bloomberg and investment bank Merrill Lynch are friends as the bank owns almost one quarter of Bloomberg.

There is no doubt, that while president Bush preaches the gospel of democracy and freedom, the reality is that we have a world for the benefit of the big corporations and their fortunate sons. The real heros are the firemen, policemen and ordinary people who died on 9/11.

The real heroes are the ones guided by a passion for doing good on behalf of others.

In the late 60s my father designed and built a house at Cincinnato, near Rome, where he would eventually retire and look after his garden. Cincinnato is after the name Cincinnatus, a Roman farmer who accepted the power of dictatorship so that he would guide his legions to defeat the Aequi and Voslcians who were threatening the Roman Republic. The story goes that after the battle, Cincinnatus gave up his dictatorship and went back to work in his farm. This is true leadership, the opportunity to serve others for the common good.

References

Storm over Bush photo fundraiser BBC News, 16 May, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1990000/1990263.stm

Greed, Fraud, And Apologies: Corporate America's New Bottom Line Arianna Huffington, May 6, 2002 http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/050602.html

Bloomberg probed over 'conflict of interest' BBC News, 2 April, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1906000/1906599.stm

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (curlyhair): Roman general, Statesman,& Farmer http://www.cyberspace.org/~omni/roman.htm

On Character and Servant-Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders by Larry C. Spears, Chief Executive Officer, The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership http://greenleaf.org/leadership/read-about-it/Servant-Leadership-Articles-Book-Reviews.html