The Baltimore Sun has a profoundly involving profile of a young writer named David Danelo who was inspired and mentored by US Senate Candidate Jim Webb.
Danelo said he decided to focus on noncommissioned officers -- or "NCOs" -- after a conversation with James Webb, another former combat Marine and academy graduate who took to writing. Webb, a Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate in Virginia, told him to write only what he knew. That advice helped him realize "that I didn't have a responsibility to be anything more than I am at this point." Given his experiences in Iraq, Danelo decided to write a book about Iraq through the eyes of "the grunts."
Clearly, Jim Webb is the kind of accessible leader who will encourage potential where he sees it, and work to bring out the best in those around him. That's something I've seen in working with Jim Webb in these brief, transformational months on the campaign trail.
The Baltimore Sun article is involving and ultimately inspiring, I encourage you to read it. There are pieces of wisdom here for us if we care to look. For example, this quote from Jim Webb can stand as a guide for those of us who participate in political discourse, but will also serve us as we work to understand the volume, diversity, and power of Jim Webb's writings.
"A writer's responsibility is to speak honestly regardless of the cost. Without that, he is simply a propagandist for one side or the other."
I think we may see in this the kind of Senator Jim Webb will make once elected. Perhaps a Senator's responsiblity is to speak honestly regardless of the cost, that he may best represent all of America, not one faction or the other.