I was in a discussion with the current rift in American culture where we for some reason are so quick to judge and as a result ignore the real problem. We continued the discussion and a quote from Teddy Roosevelt was brought up. It is a quote from a speech that he gave in Paris in 1910 titled “Citizenship in a Republic”.
“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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Do not jump to conclusions. President Roosevelt later said that “Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indespensable; but it can never take the place of action.”
Roosevelt knew that criticism was something that could not be done away with but he stood by his belief that taking action is much better than criticising while doing nothing. I feel that this applies to the entire Katrina aftermath and the things that some TV networks and people in general have decided to say and do. We are in a time of crisis, the last thing we need is criticism with no action. Right now this country needs to act and ask questions after the problem has been solved. This nation of finger pointers needs to grow up and just help each other. Who cares about political agenda, political side of the fence, and color, race, or creed.
I have spent some more time at the Reese Technology Center, which is where the evacuees in Lubbock are staying for now. A lot of them have mentioned staying here and settling down. It seems that the urge to go back just is not that great.
I will be spending more time out there next week and will hopefully have some pictures of the kids I have been getting to know. They are great and have the best outlook on what is going on around them. Every single person at Reese was rescued from their roof or from inside the floodwaters so they did not make it to the Superdome and their stories are pretty amazing. I am going to take some interviewing materials next time I am out there and will hopefully get some of their stories in recordings or at least typed.