Okay first of all, I think all of you already know him right? He was the third president of United States of America and famous with his idea to promote justice and freedom among people. Well I know him and respect him but my perspective toward him change until today. He just opened my eyes about how the leader is suppose to be. So you might wondering why on earth in the sudden I just talking about him. I even can't wait to go home, grab my laptop and make my mind controlling my finger dancing on the keyboard because a long the way I just talk loudly to my self how could someone possessed almost all of the criteria of an ideal leader.
Anyway, today I started my volunteering activities again (after such a long break I went off for Suitcase/Backpacking Trip, Spring Break and FCAT testing week) in Bear Creek Elementary School. I usually go after school everyday to volunteer, helping the librarian put the book back to the bookshelf and well after I'm done it gives a lot of opportunities for me to read too (not bad, isn't it? Gaining knowledge and surfing in the story, the window of the world is always a god thing to do). Even today, I had more time to read because the librarian didn't know that I will come today so she already have students helped her. So yeah, I just hang out there to read and tidy up some of the book shelf and put the books backs that were scattering around. Then, I found one book, biography about Thomas Jefferson. Curious, feeling hesitant at first should I just put it back to the right shelf or I can start reading it. I eventually look over the pages on the book and start reading it.
These are several fun facts about Thomas Jefferson that makes me admired him as a Leader.
- His wife died after about 10 years of marriage, leaving him 6 children. But he never remarried and raised all of his own kids by himself.
- He told nobody when was his birthday whenever they asked him because during 1700s people will celebrate their president birthday and he thought it was just such a big fuss.
- He created Democratic-Republican party replacing the Federalists
- He became president for 2 period and when Democratic-Republican asked him to re-elect him for the third time he refused because he thought that being a president is not suppose to be a life long job. Then he helped Madison became the next president. (During his time, America even didn't have the rule yet that president can only be elected for 2 period)
- He was the first president that directly hand shake the guest in white house, he didn't want them to treat him as a king which they used to be bowing to the president.
- He purchased Louisiana territory from France and made America twice as big.
- He didn't punished the media that wrote negative things against him, that's how the freedom of speech was created.
- He stopped the slavery by making a rule to stop the trading the slaves to America.
- He wrote the Declaration of Independence
- Contributing idea to French for their Declaration of Rights of Men and Citizen after the French Revolution
- During his free time he invented some of the tools to make daily life easier (use for farming, etc.)
- Founding father of University of Virginia
- Many more...............
Well I guess that should be a lot of his contribution to the world and America wasn't it as a president, lawyer, politician, inventor, father, farmer, yet he was as humble as ordinary people should be. His character was just too ideal until I wonder how could be.. No doubt that America could stand until now as a powerful nation. Because of the man, the people and the leader that it have. They are willing to improve their nation every single year, right from the very beginning that the nation born and start developing. Imagine if Jefferson take the chance to be re-elected for the third time: birth of dictator control.
So then this whole thought process led me recall about the birth of Indonesia. Well, Indonesia just got Independence from 1945, huge different with America that got it in 1776. But yet, I don't think Indonesia have ever learned from the history. I mean history is not only from Indonesian history but also the world history. When I went to Supreme Court in DC where the upper wall carved the code of law from various civilization, Hammurabi code, Napoleonic code even there's Muhammad with Qur'an. When there's a trial in Supreme Court, public even can see the process going on. Everything is transparent. The systems are working and people should follow it. It is always clear that to be a big nation means that always learn from the history of past civilization. What makes it declining, how does the leader controlling the people and the area, how's the condition of the citizen and many more things that could become a reflection to face forward making a new civilization without repeating the previous civilization mistake. Never fall to the same trapped twice. America wouldn't become right now if it never learned from previous mistakes done by Great Britain or France or many other previous civilizations.
Well I think there is a serious problem that Indonesia have to handle it. Our government keep changing policy in politics and even in education that makes the students most suffer. Why we couldn't make any stable policy that can last for long time and benefit for long term effect instead of just short time period when the governor are in their position. From my point of view, Indonesian kids really lack of learning world history. I think Indonesian history is also important to study because we don't want to loose our roots and nationalism but yet sometimes, I felt that the method used to learn that history just limited to memorizing the events, king, kingdom, dates, places. Why we have to memorize all of those crap that certainly would vanished right after we took the test. If we only have to memorize all of those things without implying it to the higher level thought processing then it will just become a history. We can never change a history but we can learn from it. After I took World History Class in USA, all of sudden, everything is clear. They really show student how the history of one civilization led, improved and connected to one another. There are always a reason behind the history and we are encourage to know the impact of it that led to the cause of another event.
Back to Thomas Jefferson. I just recall my first and second president. One had many wives. One greedy over power. Despite their contribution to the birth of Indonesia, let's just wondering: What if... They were faithful to their country and people as one of US President Thomas Jefferson loyalty to the nations and willingness to develop the nation bigger instead of satisfying his own ego of power and enjoying gratification as a leader. What we need are the leaders that care of their people.
-NA
Comments
Post a Comment