To My Magnificent Agents, Staff and Friends:
It seems there are so many mixed messages that permeate our society today. One aspect of this that has become an enduring focus of our national debate is how much are we, as a people, entitled to?
As this questions pertains to what rights we are entitled to, I would proudly put myself on the side that would argue for a liberal portion of individual rights with a minimum of governmental limitation or interference placed upon them. In our rush to label people, that may sound like conservative dogma, but, if you have to label it, I think it leans more to the libertarian view. I actually have supported many, though not all, of the ACLU’s efforts to reign in the government’s intrusion into individual freedom. Freedom is at its core a messy thing. To preserve it you have to tolerate and even celebrate the mess.
But, as to the idea that our society, through their government, are entitled to an ever-growing list of things, and this entitlement should be elevated to a right, here I would argue for strictly meager portions of that sentiment. For this belief, I would probably attract the label of “Tea Partier” I’m not really sure what a “Tea Partier” is, but I can assure you, I prefer not to be classified as anything except an apostle of those that espouse self-reliance. Most of our founding fathers embraced this as their ideal. To be truly free, you must accept responsibility. Freedom is never free. Another champion of ideal that self-reliance and responsibility is an integral component of a free society was Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt grew up as a sickly, weak child of a prominent and extremely rich New York family. Under these circumstances, he could have embraced a life of rich and idle ease, but he chose to be different. Instead “Teddy” committed himself to a life of rigorous physical exercise. He turned himself into a devoted outdoorsman and conservationist and, finally dedicated his life to public service.
In 1899, a few months after becoming governor of New York, he gave a speech in Chicago that has endured and has encouraged many to revere him as the embodiment of the true American spirit and earned success. You can draw the contrast between his words and much of the discourse of what are today’s popular entitlement beliefs.
A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that what every self-respecting American demands for himself, and from his sons, shall be demanded of the American nation as a whole. Who among you would teach your boys that ease, that peace is to be the first consideration in your eyes – to be the ultimate goal after which they strive? You men of Chicago have made this city great, you men of Illinois have done your share, and more than your share, in making America great, because you neither preach nor practice such a doctrine. You work yourselves, and you bring up your sons to work. If you are rich, and are worth your salt, you will teach your sons that though they may have leisure it is not to be spent in idleness; for wisely used leisure merely means that those who possess it, being free from the necessity of working for their livelihood, are all the more bound to carry on some kind of non-remunerative work in science, in letters, in art, in exploration, in historical research – work of the type we most need in this country, the successful carrying out of which reflects most honor upon the nation.
We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor; who is prompt to help a friend; but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail; but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present, merely means that there has been stored-up effort in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune. But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period not of preparation but of mere enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth’s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own with his fellows if the need to do so should arise again. A mere life of ease is not in the end a satisfactory life, and above all it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world…
I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavor. The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease, and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all that they hold dear, then the stronger and bolder peoples will pass us by and will win for themselves the dominion of the world. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified; for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.
If Theodore Roosevelt were alive today and gave that speech, I wonder what the reaction would be? Certainly he would be scorned for the gender bias in the choice of his words. I suspect he would be “labeled” as a something or other. Whatever it would be, I doubt it would be that he is a “Great American.” If so, that is truly to our shame.
Have a wonderful and awe-full weekend!
Bill