ShmoopTube

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Leadership in Your Community…..a la Shmoop.

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Looking back through our past…don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a history lesson… [Historical figures of leaders]

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…it’s clear that every strong community has had great leaders.

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It’s also pretty clear that, without leaders telling followers what to do, nothing would ever get done. [Soldiers in vietnam]

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Or….the same things might get done over and over by… different people.

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For instance, suppose one person decided he wanted to be responsible for hauling all of

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the garbage out of town. [Man helping remove garbage]

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Maybe he grew up playing with dump trucks, or…especially relates to Mr. Clean….

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But then another person felt the same way and thought he should be the garbage shlepper. [Another man appears beside a waste disposal van]

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And yet another person felt like she should be the one to clean out the garbage because

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she, um… had a license to drive a big truck. [Girl holding a truck license]

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Please, please, folks…let’s not fight over who gets to take out the papers and trash…

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So yeah…as a result of this bickering… maybe none of it would get taken care of. [People bickering about who takes the trash]

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Those piles of garbage would end up moving from place to place to place but never leaving

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town or going anywhere.

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The townspeople would get really fed up …not to mention the fact that the rodent population [Rodents appear from garbage bags]

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would probably triple…

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…and the citizens would demand that somebody be responsible for saying who picks up the

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garbage, when they pick it up and where they should put it. [People protesting for a leader]

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There must be a… leader of the garbage…

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Or, if you’re not in love with the garbage example, let’s try something more realistic.

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Say your town is overrun by angry, hungry zombies.

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Somebody’s gotta be the sheriff and decide how to get rid of those guys. [Man in a room and angry zombie appears]

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Somebody has to help the survivors find food and shelter…

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…and teach them how to survive the zombie apocalypse horde without getting their guts snacked [People in a small room and zombie appears from the window]

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on like a sack of Dorito’s.

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If nobody steps up to be a leader…

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Well, you get the idea. Zombies may be slow but they’re not stupid. [Zombies in a horde walking down a street]

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Well, they may be stupid, but…they’re organized.

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And uh… hungry.

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Anyway…YOU need to be that leader.

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Find out about a problem in your community. It could be a big one, could be a small one,

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like…say there’s a problem with people walking their dogs in the neighborhood without [Woman ignoring dog poop in the park]

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cleaning up after them.

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You could lead the charge in terms of putting up signs and poop bag disposal stations to

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make it easier for people to keep the sidewalks clean and poop free.

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Or maybe the crosswalk in front of your school is un-manned and unsafe and students have [Students running across the road]

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to run for their lives hoping not to get hit by traffic. You might petition the school

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board to hire someone to walk students across the street safely.

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Or maybe there’s a problem with people in your community going hungry or needing coats

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or shoes. You could start a food bank, or help out an existing one. Or organize a donation [Homeless people holding up signs for food]

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center for coats and shoes, and then help distribute them.

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Somebody’s gotta step up and be in charge and…it might as well be you.

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You’ll make your parents, teachers and friends proud. Colleges won’t hate it, either. [Man with the dean of admissions and a window boarded up]

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Even zombies know that without leadership, they could just end up wandering the Earth endlessly…

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…hankering for some fresh guts or eyeball viscera and… you wouldn’t want that. [Zombie appears from window in Dean of Admissions room]

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