New Leadership into the 21St Century

Imam W. Deen Mohammed said in a public address; words make people. I believe that a word can be anything that leaves an impression on the minds of human society, be it spoken, acted out, or whatever form it may take, all creation is to be seen as a word. According to scripture, all creation is here as a result of a word spoken by G-d, so again we say, words make people. If we can go deeper and look at the mind of the human being, and look at what kinds of words that are going into the mental makeup of a person, we then can get a better picture of what forms the character of that person. We must understand that our physical construction only acts as a vehicle that transports the mind, which is the real person. So just to view the physical makeup of a person is not really seeing that person at all. It is the ideas, the activities, the words, etc: that comes from that persons mind that helps us to see the real person.

So now we can see the importance of understanding a word like leader. Leader; a person that leads, or has commanding influence or authority over others. The director, conductor, or guide. Ship; the state, condition, or quality of something. Art skill of office. So now we see that not only do we still need leaders, but also we must have leaders that have the best interest of the people at heart. Leaders with the vision, the wisdom, knowledge, and the integrity to know when to stay, or change courses so that not only will they be able to get the people to the next level, but will also give the people the knowledge so that they may guide themselves through the rough waters of society. When we talk about leadership, we should understand that for the subject to even come up, there has to be something lacking in the minds of the people in term of where we as a people, or as a society want to go, and how we are going to reach the goals we have set for ourselves.

In todays society we hear some foolish people make the statement, I dont need a leader. Or I follow my self, I make my own decisions. We must understand that theres not a thought, or an idea that we can think of that is our very own We are influenced by the environment that we live in. We should also realize that this society is not hap hazard, but rather, very orchestrated. Therefore many decisions that we make become life determining.

In todays society we are lead to think that all accomplishments have to be material. With this kind of thinking, we can easily see how a person can become so limited in terms of growth, and development, and a non- - contributor to the positive development of human society as a whole. Many are influenced by the all pervasiveness of the media, which contrary to what those in media would have us believe, media is not art mimicking life, but rather it helps to set the trends of life. We see many people with lots of money, especially those in the field of entertainment, with little or no vision, reach their peak in the early stages of their development, and then suddenly crash as a result of the trials of life. Still others who desire to have these material accomplishments, although never rise to that level, still they see it as their lifes goal, and in their quest for it, they use illegal methods, which eventually leaves them dead in the streets, or locked up behind bars for a good deal of their young lives. Then there are those who continue to struggle to make ends meet, and those who do manage to make it up the higher end of the economic ladder. Too many of these tend to lose their identity because they have been lead to believe that the goal for the African American community is voting rights, or integration, and once these goals are achieved, then the struggle is over. As a consequence of this kind of thinking, as African Americans, we still see ourselves at the bottom of American society. Not only here in America, but around the world as well.

It is unfortunate