Our Country is in a dire time. Economic forecasts are not promising, the job market is tightening, the educational system is failing and falling behind, the middle class is shrinking, retirement pensions and social security are endangered, and our fellow Americans are giving their lives daily at the hands of a long and costly war. Some might say that the United States itself has turned into a Sub-Prime investment.

Of course we are all looking to place the blame. Some say Wall Street and greed are at fault, others blame the political process and the President. Maybe these and other factors are a part of our current predicament, but no one factor is bigger and more prevalent than the failure of Leadership this country has seen over the past two decades.

The failure of leadership has been widespread in our democracy: from the halls of legislatures throughout the 50 states to the halls of the average American home. Have more than 10% of the people you know ever voluntarily written a letter to an elected representative? Do you know some people that don’t even vote? Why is there such silence amongst the people of this country? The government builds our roads, supports our businesses, provides services to the needy and drastically affects the world around us, why are we so timid to try and affect our government?

Although we all have a stake, the most egregious violations against leadership have come from the people at the helm. Problem after problem comes to the front door of our government and our elected representatives refuse to answer, leaving a doorstep full of pressing issues. Maybe the inaction signifies a passing of the buck (let the new guys deal with this, “disresponsibility” ), maybe an indifference (this problem doesn’t matter we’re going to be ok, everything always turns out alright), maybe the inaction is a political strategy to keep a legislative seats or Maybe the inaction signifies a lack of understanding and experience to know what could happen if things get to the breaking point.

The breaking point is obviously here or close to it. The government is nationalizing banks and a $700 billion bailout plan is in the works. I’m afraid we don’t have much time until we do realize the stresses of a deep recession.

Although our country might very well look “Sub-Prime,” along with Moody’s and S&P I’m still giving it a AAA rating. Although we may be very deep in debt and wrought with problems, we have a trump card, our human capital. The world over knows our potential for great leadership and over the history of the United States we have shown leadership in almost every manner and industry imaginable. But we cannot get comfortable or complacent like the generation before us. We should more stringently call for leadership in our representatives, but we should also call for leadership in ourselves.