LETTER: It’s time for our leaders to listen to the people

In her “I Remember Korea,” Linda Granfield includes a letter by James Landrum titled “Special Missions.” Reflecting on the terrible cost of a war the Japanese people never wanted, Landrum wrote: “The warlords had not learned from the people.” That single sentence captures what I – and many other Americans – sense today. Too many leaders in Washington, D.C. seem to hang their morality on the coat rack when they report for work and then pursue power, wealth, and immorality at great cost to ordinary Americans.

What such leaders forget is legion, but among those ideals are these: morality is never optional; the Golden Rule is always the best option; and living in peace with other nations is always a choice. We can see this clearly in Costa Rica, which abolished its military in 1948 and has lived in peace for nearly 80 years. Other nations – Panama, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, Nauru, and Vatican City – show that peace is not naïve; it is a deliberate national decision. These countries chose peace. Why can’t we?

What power-hungry leaders ignore is the political and human cost of violence – whether that violence is military, legal, economic, or social. It shows up in the mistreatment of U.S. citizens and residents who are labeled “alleged threats” without evidence. It shows up in the reduction of the poor and minorities to objects of unworthiness and hatred. It shows up in efforts to erase by fiat the people’s power to vote. It shows up in the ongoing tolerance of sexual assault and exploitation of underaged girls and women by those who believe their status places them above accountability. These abuses, and others like them, are not signs of strength. They are signs of abject moral failure.

However, lest we forget, leaders who lack morality are not immune to pressure. History, even ours, shows that three forces can still reach them. Public pressure works when citizens refuse to accept "the official line" and demand truth about harm. Political pressure punishes cruelty, corruption, and indifference at the ballot box. Institutional pressures by courts, legislatures, and watchdogs expose wrongdoing and force accountability.

Even leaders who have abandoned moral principles still respond to consequences that threaten their power, reputation, or legal standing. These pressures work because they come from outside the insulated bubble where too many leaders hide from the human cost of their decisions.

Until leaders here and elsewhere realize that they are never immune to moral accountability, the burden falls on We the People to insist on something better. And that means ALL people deserve better – not just the elite, the rich, or the privileged. All means ALL. 

If the warlords of the past “had not learned from the people,” then perhaps it is time for today’s leaders to start listening. And it is time for us to insist that they do.

Duane Pitts

Moses Lake