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Have we become too soft in this country? For many of us our bellies hang over our belts. Why, because we choose to eat too much. Or is that we cannot control what we eat. We don’t get enough exercise. Obesity is a huge problem in the United States. But look at the pictures of Afghanistan’s people. I do not see this in them. They look lean and hard. Toughened by a life of struggle for survival through 20 years of war. Their land is a land of emptiness, of rocks and hills and mountain passes and deep gorges. It is a tough land with even tougher people who survive in its environment. I hope our fight is not with the common Afghanis. I pray it is limited to their rulers and the followers of Osama bin Laden? But only time will tell and we must be prepared for any eventuality.
What is clear to me is that as a society we have in many ways had a life of ease: plenty of comforts; food easily available; televisions to watch and cars to drive us where we want to go. This is not to say that we live a life without stress or that there are no Americans that struggle to provide the basics of life. At 39 I suffered a massive heart attack. We do have stress in this country and it takes its toll every day on women and men. But that part of life that has been easy for us is changing and will continue to change. Our lives will become based more upon Theodore Roosevelt’s “doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife”.
We should not fear embracing such a life. It may be good for our waists and toughen us up. Roosevelt knew that the “highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.” And the availability of this triumph is not limited to men. It is as much for women as for men for all in America will be asked to sacrifice in this effort and shall share in our triumph. We need to be lead by, and to develop people, who as Roosevelt put it have “the qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.” President Bush has recently demonstrated these qualities.
In his speech The Strenuous Life, on April 10, 1899, Roosevelt spoke with wisdom when he commented that:
“When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded.”
Our war is righteous. We are without a doubt in a battle for our way of life. Though our war is not with Muslims, those who are at war with us want to make this appear as a war with Muslims, so that their numbers are increased and the motivation of their warriors to preserve their religious beliefs is a dominate factor in their motivation to fight. This is a powerful motivation and one that we should not overlook either. If you looked at the present conditions in Afghanistan, would you want to live under Taliban rule? That is our enemies’ goal, to destroy our way of life and to dominate the world with their way of life.
I am confident that with bold and bright leaders, America and its allies can be victorious over international terrorism. But if we fail, I agree with Roosevelt that:
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
Already there are some people saying that we could avoid the suffering that inevitably comes with war simply by shrinking from the battle. They say we should close our eyes and visualize world peace. And Roosevelt would be right when he stated that: “if we had thus avoided it, we would have shown that we were weaklings, and that we were unfit to stand among the great nations of the earth.” For if we are to be a nation deserving of respect, America must do its best to play a great part in the destruction of terrorism in the world. In this battle we will not avoid meeting complex and dangerous issues crossing many nations paths. For us, as Americans, we can only decide to do our best and count on God for the rest.
Thousands of good Americans have died, but there are those who say that we should do nothing. Take no action. Make no statements about war. Not even use the word. Or they say that we should change our policies to placate the terrorist and blame our choices of the past for our present condition. But to refuse to deal with terrorism as a war is simply a decision to deal with it badly and to extend the power of terrorist. Again I turn to Mr. Roosevelt who stated that:
“We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution, there is, of course, always danger that we may not solve it aright; but to refuse to undertake the solution simply renders it certain that we cannot possibly solve it aright….We cannot sit huddled within our own borders and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. Such a policy would defeat even its own end;”
The war must be fought. We cannot escape our duty to be the main force against the enemies of the entire world. That is where our history has placed us. We can accept the challenge or cower from it and accept the consequences of this course of action. Are we equal to the task to root out terrorism from civilization?
“Let us not deceive ourselves as to the importance of the task. Let us not be misled by vainglory into underestimating the strain it will put on our powers. Above all, let us, as we value our own self-respect, face the responsibilities with proper seriousness, courage, and high resolve. We must demand the highest order of integrity and ability in our public men [and women] who are to grapple with these new problems. We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources. … But to do this work, keep ever in mind that we must show in a very high degree the qualities of courage, of honesty, and of good judgment.”
Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, April 10, 1898.
History is so pertinent to today’s events. If Roosevelt were alive, he could have easily given this same speech with slight modification to fit today’s events and so I conclude with one final part from his speech:
“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 they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination 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.”
The greatness of this nation still exists in each of us willing to stand up for what is right. And the war against terrorism is a just cause and an essential task that we are fit to meet.
God Bless America and Protect Her!
Patrick S. Hanway
Published by Permission
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