It's been taking me a very long time to do my 12-14 page research paper on Watergate and public opinion about the president and the government. About a couple of weeks ago, I came across Nixon's speech on his departure from the White House. At first I just skimmed through the speech, because I had to find something valuable for my paper. But after reading it again, I found something so incredible and valuable for our lives. Nixon, saying something valuable? What? Uhm, he was a crook, and a liar!!! Yes, I know, but maybe we can learn something from people like that.
After Nixon's Watergate scandal blew out of the water, he had no way to finish his second term in office. He had to resign. On August 9th 1974, Nixon gave his last speech as president of the United States. Nixon was heart-broken to lose the presidency that he worked hard for. I'm not sure if his words were sincere or not, I'm not to judge, only God could do that. And let me make this straight, I'm not an "Anti-Nixon" or "Pro-Nixon" but I did admire his speech. I also feel that Nixon had left a valuable lesson that he learned when he had to resign from office.
August 9, 1974
"...this quote is about a young man. He was a young lawyer in New York. He had married a beautiful girl, and they had a lovely daughter, and then suddenly she died, and this is what he wrote. This was in his diary.
He said, "She was beautiful in face and form and lovelier still in spirit. As a flower she grew and as a fair young flower she died. Her life had been always in the sunshine. There had never come to her a single great sorrow. None ever knew her who did not love and revere her for her bright and sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure and joyous as a maiden, loving, tender and happy as a young wife. When she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun and when the years seemed so bright before her, then by a strange and terrible fate death came to her. And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever."
That was T.R. in his twenties. He thought the light had gone from his life forever—but he went on. And he not only became President but, as an ex-President, he served his country, always in the arena, tempestuous, strong, sometimes wrong, sometimes right, but he was a man.
And as I leave, let me say, that is an example I think all of us should remember. We think sometimes when things happen that don't go the right way; we think that when you don't pass the bar exam the first time—I happened to, but I was just lucky; I mean, my writing was so poor the bar examiner said, "We have just got to let the guy through." We think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think that when we suffer a defeat that all is ended. We think, as T.R. said, that the light had left his life forever.
Not true. It is only a beginning, always. The young must know it; the old must know it. It must always sustain us, because the greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."
Full Speech
