Are You A Cold and Timid Soul, or a Daring Soul?

Today, I would like to share with you a quote from, in the opinion of many, one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history: Theodore Roosevelt. A man for whom the difficulty in resolving an issue was of minor consideration, the reason in tackling the problem being of greatest importance, he is an individual we would do well to emulate. The portion of his speech Citizenship in a Republic at the Sorbonne in 1910 known as The Man in the Arena encapsulates this virtue better than I can.

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 and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and wh, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Human trafficking and prostitution are problems which we can not let be in good conscience. It will not be an easy task. We will not see an end to our work in a year. We will not see an end to our work in a decade. We very likely will never see these problems cease to be an issue demanding public attention in our lifetime. But, as Roosevelt said our place, “shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” We will spend ourselves in a worthy cause! We will fight in the arena, so that others will see our example, and fight on after we are gone, until no more women are held captive by force or poverty and used for their bodies!