An essential part of leadership is decisiveness. Leaders are paid to make decisions – the sort of tough, ugly and gut-wrenching decisions that most of us never have to make. Now, with two years left on the job, President Bush faces the most critical decision of his presidency: What do we do in Iraq?

It would be an understatement to say the Republican-controlled 109th Congress did not live up to our expectations. To its credit, it did manage to pass a series of tax cuts, but there were no offsetting cuts in spending. It passed the No Child Left Behind Act with bipartisan support. It passed the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the power of federal law enforcement to pursue terror suspects and a costly Medicare prescription drug benefit. However, the list of what the 109th Congress did not do is long.

It wouldn't surprise me if you missed the article that is changing my life forever. On Nov. 2, The San Diego Union-Tribune ran a six-line announcement on Page 3 of the Business section saying that 67 employees who have been with the company 30 years or longer had been offered “voluntary retirement incentive packages.” That includes me.