Letter: Roosevelt’s words ring true in support of Bush

Friday, June 30, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

In response to Don McDonald's June 25 letter regarding President Bush and his quote of President Theodore Roosevelt, I would also like to quote President Roosevelt, in part from his speech entitled, "The Man in the Arena," which was delivered April 23, 1910, in Paris.

It reads in part: "... 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 them 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, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who at the best knows in the end triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat ...

"Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are ..."

If President Bush was worried about the politics of the day, he would no doubt cut and run from the situation that the United States faces in the world and, in particular, Iraq.

George Peel, Henderson