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"Our Leader"
As an unwritten rule, democratic nations do not feel the need to idolize their leaders. We are all familiar with the gaudy, ever-present billboards praising such dictators as Qaddafi (Libya), Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il (North Korea), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Fidel Castro (Cuba), and Mao Tse-Tung (China). We Americans have never felt it necessary to establish a cult of the leader. Or have we?
Billboard in downtown Pyongyang,
North Korea featuring "our great and glorious
leader,
Kim Il-Sung.
Billboard in downtown Beijing, China, featuring Chairman Mao and the glorious military leader Lin Biao (who died in an airplane crash after attempting a coup against Mao).
Che Guevara poster in Havana
Needs no introduction. Close-up of a billboard outside Havana
Finally, there is this billboard that appeared in Orlando, Florida, in early November 2004
A billboard recently put up in Orlando bearing a smiling photograph of President Bush with the words “Our Leader” is raising eyebrows among many observers who feel the poster is akin to that of propaganda used by tyrannical regimes.
In early November, responding to rumors about the billboard, a member of an Orlando media organization drove past the billboard on two occasions and verified that it was indeed the one pictured. The billboard pictured -- which is on I-4 -- says that it is a “political public service message brought to you by Clear Channel Outdoor.”
The individual who found this billboard discovered a second billboard bearing the same image along the same route, paid for by "Charles W. Clayton Jr."
Aren't you glad that we Americans, on our free society, do not feel compelled to idolize our elected leaders? What's next -- George Bush statues on every corner?