“As we recover from the bruises
from this year’s Presidential election, perhaps a different perspective on
citizenship will speed the healing. “Ken Mandile
Other voices and visions offer ideas that help guide us throughout our lives. Their messages can suggest direction and meaning. Come for the potluck at 6 PM and/or the program from 7-8 PM in the Chapel.
Ken
Mandile will discuss some views on what it means to be a good citizen, with
particular focus on Teddy Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” speech.
An excerpt, “Man in the Arena” quote (“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…”).
There
was a more important point of Roosevelt’s speech that was lost in the focus on
this one powerful quote. It is not the hero that will determine the
success of a republic, “… success or failure will be conditioned upon
the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty,
first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life”.
Upcoming presenters: January 23, Jay Lavelle; February 27, Steve Knox;
March 27, Lee Bona
