Greetings Brothers,
Roughly 18 months before the founding of Omega, former POTUS Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris, France titled “Citizenship in a Republic.” If you played ball at some point in your life, or perhaps even if you didn’t play ball, someone likely shared with you a popular excerpt from Roosevelt’s speech. The excerpt, popularly referred to as “The Man in the Arena,” is probably more recognizable than the speech it appeared in and goes as follows:
“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 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 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.
I recently came across this correspondence (click here to download https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lXuAv1YXrEIqjKv1hAtaKkDLQ0U8o7ZB) in a larger collection of documents from the 57th Grand Conclave in Atlanta, GA (1976) that seemed to me to underscore Omega’s legacy as “The Frat in the Arena” that “does actually strive to do the deeds; [that] knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; [that] spends [it]self in a worthy cause.”
Make it a great week Brothers. Be noble!
F.I.E.T.T.S.
3rd District History and Archives Committee
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The Monday Pearl is provided by the Third District History and Archives Committee and is a weekly sharing of fraternity content, commentary, and research of historical value we hope Brothers will enjoy and from which Brothers will draw inspiration. Previous “Pearls” can be found at http://3rddistrictques.org/about-us/overview/monday-pearl/. The Committee encourages your feedback. Should you have reactions, comments, information, anecdotes, documents, and the like, related to any of the content we share, we’d very much like to hear from you. Please send all communication to 3dhistoryandarchives@gmail.com.