by Joe Anderson, Featured Contributor
In Citizenship – Character does Count!
THEODORE ROOSEVELT gave his “CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC, “The Man in the Arena” speech at the Sorbonne Paris, France on April 23, 1910 and the message he gave is as relevant today as it was in 1910 and the lessons to be learned from that speech are sorely needed in America today.
Over the years, I have read and re-read this speech and thought about the implications of being an American citizen and what it means to be an American citizen. When I look at where American is today, I have this strong sense that we have lost our identity as American citizens…we’ve lost our sense of character, the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.…we don’t know what the term “character” means anymore. We have become a nation of left wingers, right wingers, self-serving special interest groups, money grubbing financiers, unethical lawyers and power hungry politicians….all looking out for their own self-interests and not for the interests of America.
In his speech, Roosevelt said, in part:
“Today I shall speak to you on the subject of individual citizenship, the one subject of vital importance to you, my hearers, and to me and my countrymen, because you and we are great citizens of great democratic republics. A democratic republic such as o
urs – an effort to realize its full sense government by, of, and for the people – represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught with great responsibilities alike for good and evil. The success or republics like yours and like ours means the glory, and our failure of despair, of mankind; and for you and for us the question of the quality of the individual citizen is supreme. Under other forms of government, under the rule of one man or very few men, the quality of the leaders is all-important. If, under such governments, the quality of the rulers is high enough, then the nations for generations lead a brilliant career, and add substantially to the sum of world achievement, no matter how low the quality of average citizen; because the average citizen is an almost negligible quantity in working out the final results of that type of national greatness. But with you and us the case is different. With you here, and with us in my own home, in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average women, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional cries which call for heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves us to do our best to see that the standard of the average citizen is kept high; and the average cannot be kept high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher.”
Deeper into his speech, he stated:
“There is need of a sound body, and even more of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character – the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man’s force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. I believe in exercise for the body, always provided that we keep in mind that physical development is a means and not an end. I believe, of course, in giving to all the people a good education. But the education must contain much besides book-learning in order to be really good. We must ever remember that no keenness and subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in any way make up for the lack of the great solid qualities. Self restraint, self mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution – these are the qualities which mark a masterful people.”
Character, those qualities of self restraint, self mastery, common sense, accepting individual responsibility, courage, resolution and working together. These are powerful attributes but my sense is we’ve lost our appreciation and aspiration to achieve these qualities. In today’s American, we don’t value character, we value material possessions, money, do your own thing, the ends justify the means, power simply for powers sake…it’s all about me…the big “selfie”… not what I can do for you…how can I help you, or moral and ethical behavior. People, driven for material wealth and acquisitions fail to teach their children values, character, and good citizenship…what it means to be an American citizen.
Unfortunately, this lack of character is self-perpetuating. Children learn from their parents, from people they interact with, people in leadership positions…their teachers, businessmen, political leaders, government leaders and, other people in their lives. Children see these people’s focus on power and possession and how to get more, and they think it’s how they should act…they’ve become acceptable character traits. They learn all the wrong lessons and these are the folks who will become the next generation of leaders….think about that!
I urge folks to read the text of the speech…it’s powerful and relevant. It can be found here: Citizenship in a Republic
Editor’s Note: See Volume 1 of Joe’s Series here: Musings Of A Discouraged American (Volume 1)
Ken, I like your commentary…thanks for sharing. I agree, people spend far too much time trying to justify their actions through smoke and mirrors rather than simply being accountable. Joe
A good nudge in the ribs, Joe. We need it in today’s world.
It seems that when the subjects of character, ethics, honesty, responsibility, and even common sense are introduced the discussion quickly turns to debating the meanings of and the origins of the words. Those academic turns defeat the purpose of the discussions and seem to reflect the direction of our government today. The end result is that our government is too embroiled in academic and theoretical debate and not involved enough in finding solutions to our problems.