This is Leadership

Recently we had the pleasure of watching our youngest daughter receive her Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota. Former Vice President Walter Mondale was the speaker and he departed from the usual format for commencement speeches. In addition to the pat messages on changing the world etc. he took this opportunity to make an apology to the 230 plus graduates. He apologized for his generation and the generation of most of the parents for not doing enough to make our world a better place.

His first apology was for the country's financial mess left to these young people.

His second apology was for not doing enough in the area of climate change.

While some graduates felt this was a 'downer' which is certainly was; I feel that Mondale showed real leadership. Instead of ignoring the issue or blaming unknown obstacles for these problems, he took responsibility for what might be called failures of today's leaders. end