Letter: ‘Speaking softly’ is overrated in perilous times

Monday, Feb. 3, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

In reference to Raymond Harbert's Jan. 30 letter, "Bush fails to 'walk softly' in a changed world":

First, a favorite adage of Theodore Roosevelt was "Speak softly and carry a big stick," not "walk softly."

Second, it was Buckminster Fuller who coined the term "Spaceship Earth" rather than Jacques Cousteau.

While I have nothing to add to the latter reference, (each is entitled to his or her own opinion), I would like to add a couple of quotes of T.R.'s to this mix.

Regarding the threat of Germany in the pre-World War I era:

"We are fighting in the quarrel of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny. Germany has become a menace to the whole world. She is the most dangerous enemy of liberty now existing."

I think we could draw allusions to Iraq in this context. And another that I believe may be viewed in context with the present circumstances in the United Nations:

"Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping."

Not a lot of "soft speaking" here.

RICHARD KIMMELL