Enlightened Leadership

Many vicissitudes are creating turbulence in our society.

We are making progress in improving education, but the rest of the world is accelerating so fast that that the gap between where we are and where we need to be to remain globally competitive is growing.

Parts of our economy are being dislocated as the global winds blow, and individuals' lives are being impacted in painful ways. Some South Carolina manufacturers can not figure out how to be profitable with South Carolina workers, but the Chinese are building research and development facilities in Camden.

Among the devastation wrought by Katrina is the ripping open of the wound of race in this country.

Brad Warthen, the Editorial Page Editor of The State, and I had an email discussion about education and agreed that we need enlightened leadership to guide us through the vicissitudes of education. It's also true for economic, and racial and other vicissitudes we face.

The challenge of our society is to find that enlightened leadership, and then to rally around and support them. In the highly polarized world we live in, that is a very tall order.