Republican Congressmen and Senators are condemning Biden's troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. They are especially criticizing the loss of 13 service members to a terror attack. Some are calling for Biden's impeachment. Some are calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Could any of them have done this withdrawal better? Or would they have our troops remain in Afghanistan forever?
The entire episode – the withdrawal and the predictable criticism – brings to my mind a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1910, at the Sorbonne in Paris, Roosevelt delivered a speech called “Citizenship in a Republic,” which, eventually, would come to be known also as “The Man in the Arena.”
Roosevelt railed against cynics who looked down at men who were trying to make the world a better place. “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer,” he said. “A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities—all these are marks, not ... of superiority but of weakness.”
Then, partway through his speech, he delivered this passage: an inspirational and impassioned message that drew huge applause:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
1 comment:
Good morning! I can not say anything about it because we have own problems that we are dealing with right now too, but I can say this:"Someone who is heavily involved in a situation that requires courage, skill, or tenacity, as opposed to someone sitting on the sidelines and watching". It's so easy to see yourself in a good light and at the same time focus on imperfections of other people. But criticizing people is a complete lose-lose situation that only creates distance, spreads negative energies and causes tensions. Criticism is one of the worst kinds of negative thinking, talking and acting. If you do something that is not good for others, you are condemned and criticized. "The man in the arena"
TA
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