This is a great story all the way around. I've often wondered if we really need the security levels for high-level leaders that we invoke for them. It's true that there's a danger in rolling down your window, or getting out with the crowd, but there's also a very great good to be had from remaining one of the people. Perhaps sometimes it's worth running the hazard, in order to have the good.
I agree with you; although there are tradeoffs that the one being protected needs to consider.
ReplyDeleteIt only takes one bullet--or one bomb and one bullet because the idiots can't even get their bomb to go off right--to eliminate the protectee. If the protectee happens to be a major leader, his demise affects whole nations, not just him and his family.
Taking such risks also puts the protection detail at considerably increased risk. Their lives matter, too, and the protectee has a duty to them as well as to his cause.
It's not that the risks shouldn't be run, but that they should be carefully considered rather than taken cavalierly.
Eric Hines
Not to be dismissive, but sometimes leaders are more replaceable than we think. This Pope is a unique figure, remarkable and so far one I'm very glad to see. On the other hand, I also liked the last Pope. And the one before him.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of US Presidents, the President is one of the few figures who has a person assigned the full-time job of being ready to replace him on the spot. It's traumatic when a President is assassinated, but it may be worse to have the day-to-day disconnection from the ordinary people of the country. Once in a while, it might be a good idea to get out and walk the crowd, roll down your window, show up somewhere and just be with folks.
My husband's family are DC natives, and they recall how common it was to see the President and his family out and about the town with little/no fanfare and no visible security.
ReplyDeleteHow times have changed.
You also have to be careful about the question of are you generating love for the institution you represent, or for you? (Acknowledging that there is overlap, invariably).
ReplyDeleteA fair point, but I'm thinking less about the love (although that's important) and more about the quality of leadership that is debased by not having contact with your people. The more disconnected you are with the people you are leading, the less fit you are to lead at all.
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