The Neighborhood Anthology
on Leadership & Authority ed. I

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from Baltimore Maryland
Fiyaman with The Limelight 

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I love to motivate people in the morning
because its the most important part of the day!
It’s therapeutic to me. – Tad Battle

TAD BATTLE
THE MORNING MOTIVATIONAL MAN
by Kendall F. Person

If you are Facebook Friends with Tad Battle, then you know very well who he is. If you are not, allow me to introduce and explain why he is a leader and has been selected to open such a high-profile show. I have never met him in person, nor have I ever heard his voice. We are connected through social media, although I imagine there must be other common ground, since we share 163 of the same Friends. Tad Battle is not the Mayor of a city nor Chief of a nation. He does not command a worldwide audience on television, and nor do the words he shares even belong to him, but Tad Battle sinks inside the consciousness of the thousands that see his daily posts of inspiration.

Either purposeful or by happenstance, on more then a few occasions, the quotes he shares feels like he is speaking to us directly. As if by divine intervention, he understands our struggles and what is challenging us at the moment, and takes the time to find the right words, that allow us to continue to march on.

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential
to become better. – Bill Bradley

And that exactly is what Tad Battle does best. He places each of us on the same page even though we are reading different books. Being a leader has many definitions and even more conquest. We can be led into salvation or we can be guided straight to damnation. We can be molded into leaders or we can follow in the footsteps of another, who quite frankly, does not give a dam. So it is not the definition of a leader we should seek, as there are no dictionaries that would define Tad Battle as a leader in the traditional sense.

But if we understand, that we are led by the forces that come at us each and every day; be it violence in our cities, that lead us to mistrust our fellow citizens or political rhetoric on the campaign trails, that lead us to believe, it is us against them, Tad Battle unwittingly combats those forces, with motivational words of support. And he does so in the mornings, to assure we are in control of our minds and our day; he affords us the tools we need, which subconsciously, reinforces that we should strive to be good members of our communities. A constant feed into our minds of uplifting words and we-can-do-anything vibes, fills us with the emotional and spiritual ammunition we need, to make positive contributions, that may one day gift humanity.

Everyone has a contribution to make.
– thepublicblogger

Leadership & Authority – two vital words in maintaining a civil society and building a constructive and imaginative community. But they also hold the keys to division and destruction. However, it is the individual us as a collective community, that anoints the power of authority, based on the qualities we seek in our leaders. But first, we must learn to become leaders of ourselves. Then we must find a way to become positive contributors – on any level – within our homes and our neighborhoods, and even within our social media circles…. like Tad Battle.

TAG: an online game played and published SEP 2015