An Inquiry Into the Life and Times of Teridon

If there is a person who I would emulate my life with, in terms of merging leadership, business and service, I can think of no one else but former Vice-President Al Gore. For the entirety of his political career and even after controversially losing to George W. Bush in 2001, Al Gore never stopped nor rested on his ideals for a better America, albeit a better world, especially in his struggle against global warming.

Since 2001, Gore has embarked on an educational blitzkrieg of the evil of global warming as to why all governments of the world must come together and act decisively to combat the looming threat not only to mankind but to the existence of life on earth. He lectured in different places – universities, colleges, town halls, theaters – all venues in which Gore can spread the message, inspire people and get them to act together with him in his fight for a better world.

He has cut across an entire cross-section of American society in convincing them of the validity of his cause – conservative Christians, liberals, ethnic communities and a host of different diverse groups who otherwise would not have come together unless the fate of humanity is involved. At the center of it all was Al Gore, the defeated presidential aspirant who never lost his spurs despite his tragic loss and even proved to the entire world that a presidential setback can never preclude a good man from serving his people.

Nonetheless, his advocacy is never without intense opposition from an elite section of American society. In a recently concluded congressional hearing, Al Gore was again taken for granted by senior Republican congressmen who obviously had in their objectives the debunking of his premises against global warming by using ad hominem attacks and using argumentation fallacies to bring Al Gore and his advocacy to a corner. They kept on saying that the scientific evidence proving global warming is a fraud, despite the massive evidence presented by international scholars during a meeting in Paris a few months back. More so, Al Gore is being portrayed as simply interested in riding the tide of global warming for his own personal interests as he perfectly knew how important a unifying issue it was for a great majority of the American people.

All of these criticisms and lies never stopped Al Gore from continuing on with his struggle and being true to his mission of education the people on the evils of global warming. His film, The Inconvenient Truth, was even given an Academy Award for being the best documentary of 2006, in recognition of his relentless efforts in molding the minds of the American public. He has been able to create a pressure group to lobby Congress to form policies which would protect the earth from further heating up, and restrict industries from over-producing toxic fumes that would soon enough contribute to the heating process of the earth.

In all of these, much can be truly learned from Al Gore, even business leaders, on the manner by which a clearness and definiteness of vision exists in his mind despite the momentous tasks at hand. Business leaders, like Al Gore, must have the courage of conviction to stand up for the good and benefit of their companies and corporations, if they would want to see the fruition of their efforts, sacrifices and investments.

# posted by Terry Ridon : 1:26 AM