1.) Bynoe's Who Shall Lead Us gave a very good picture of two different types of leaders. The charismatic leader, who is energetic, enabling, and is able to envision change, and the citizen leader, who is your average person that is fully committed to making a change in their community. As with all personality types, there are pros and cons.
A pro to having a charismatic leader is that they are a visionary. They have the ability to see things in a different, many times more positive, way than the rest of us. Their charisma enables them to persuade others of their values and beliefs. They get people excited about the issues they are addressing: their passions become the passions of everyone that they are leading. What is also great about the charismatic leader is that they are emotional people which makes it easier for their followers to relate to them. Many times when I think of charismatic people I think of actors: people who can play the necessary role. They can be the biggest supporter of whatever it is they are part of which makes following them very exciting. The cons to a charismatic leader are the double-edged sword of many of their pros. When someone is so charismatic and energetic, many times that is all that there is to them. After the exciting of the rally is over, people are left with empty promises because the leader was more about the hype of the change than the change itself. Like I mentioned earlier, the charismatic leader can have the tendency to be an actor and simply be acting out another role as oppose to being fully committed to the project. People that are around charismatic leaders enough can battle a lot of doubt and not be convinced that the change is real. "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" can become the attitude of the followers and it makes the charismatic leader less likely to be trusted. The personality of the charismatic leader is their strength and weakness. They can quickly become "the boy who cried wolf" which is very sad.
The pros to being a citizen leader is that they are in the community: they are Joe, Fred, or Bob from down the street that knows the issues and has the respect and trust of his peers. The focus of the citizen leader is truly on the community and making it better. They have the servant leadership mentality: it's not about them! These are the leaders that are a lot more likely to see that change happens. They may not be as energetic and enabling personality-wise as the charismatic leader, but they are going to make sure that the jobs they committed to are completed. They truly are, for all intents and purposes, "the voice of the people"! The cons of being a citizen leader are that they can easily get swept up in the emotional side of things. Because they are part of the community, they are attached on a deeper level than other leaders which can cause issues if not guarded against. They can also have the propensity to simply give everyone what they want even if it's not what is best because of the relationships they have. Like the charismatic leader, the pros and cons of being a citizen leader go hand-in-hand. What can be their greatest strength has the potential to likewise be their greatest weakness.
I have two types of leaders that come to my mind when I think of potentially citizen or charismatic leadership: pastors and student body presidents. Both of these leaders have the potential to fall under theses categories and here is why. You hear of and watch pastors on television, in the paper, etc. who are unbelievably charismatic people. They get up on stage and preach sermons that truly blow people's minds and get them beyond excited about their religion. Yet after the service is over, the pastor goes his own way and does not have any communication or role in the people's lives. He doesn't know their struggles, fears, etc. But there are other pastors who are citizen leaders. They know their congregation by name and really relate to the issues they are dealing with. They give counsel and preach on topics that will truly help their people deal with the issues they are facing. It's not about the glitz and the glamor, it's about helping people make the necessary changes in their lives. The same thing follows for student body presidents. You can either have the leader who is the cheerleader and gets everyone excited and rallied together but then does his own agenda once elected or you have the leader who is right there with his peers every day and truly understands the issues and works to address them.
2.) Ella Baker teaches us that we need leaders who know and understand our community. We need to fight battles that we understand and that affect us as oppose to simply fighting for what we are told to fight for. The people we support should be the people who know the issues and have the ability to convey them to the public. Ella Baker supported citizen leaders. Even the charisma of Martin Luther King, Jr. was too much in her opinion to detract attention from the main issues they were fighting for. What I walk away with from Ella Baker is I have the responsibility to fight for the issues in my own background.
3.) When I think of the word "patriotism", I automatically think of the movie Patriot with Mel Gibson. It has always been one of my favorite movies and I think I grab a lot of my definition from that movie. Mel Gibson's character is against the American Revolution until his son is killed by a British officer. He ultimately joins the Colonial Militia and plays a substantial role in their success. Why his stand is patriotic in my opinion is because he is fighting for something he believes in. He wasn't easily swayed by his peers to join the militia and fight because everyone else wanted him to: it wasn't until it became his personal conviction and retaliation that his mind was changed. Because of this war, he lost two sons and his relationship with the rest of his children suffered at times, but he gave it up for the end result. A true patriot isn't selfish. When you are standing for something- whether your country or your personal view in a class- you are taking a huge risk. More many patriots, they don't even get to personal experience whatever it is they are fighting for. But a patriot sees beyond himself to the greater good. He views things on a macro scale. A protest, a walkout, a war, or whatever it is that they are involved in isn't about a personal offense against themselves- it's about a human right that they have deemed worthy of their free time, freedom, or life. These are reasons why I can't associate "fans" as patriots. Unless you are willing to sacrifice even to death for whatever it is you are supporting, you aren't a patriot- you are just another charismatic cheerleader.
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