"The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance" – Theodore Roosevelt to America Today
A Letter to the People of the United States By Theodore Roosevelt
My Fellow Americans,
I write to you from beyond the grave with a heart both heavy and full of fury. I have watched with growing dismay as the nation I so dearly cherished—one I fought to strengthen, elevate, and unify—teeters on the edge of self-inflicted ruin.
I do not mince words. The United States was forged through grit, through sacrifice, through an unyielding spirit of progress. It was never meant to be a nation of cowards, nor a playground for the corrupt and self-serving. And yet, I see factions more interested in shouting than in listening, in tearing down rather than building up. I see men and women who call themselves leaders yet shrink from their duty, choosing instead to grovel before wealth and power while the common citizen is left behind.
In my time, we took on the monopolists who sought to own the very lifeblood of this nation. We did not sit idly by while corporations bled workers dry, while politicians sold their souls to the highest bidder, or while the wealthy dictated the fate of the many. We fought! And we won—not because it was easy, but because it was necessary.
Yet, today, I see a return to the very injustices I sought to crush. The wealthy hoard their fortunes while the working man is left to scrap for dignity. Great industries manipulate your democracy with a stranglehold tighter than any of the Robber Barons I once battled. And the people? You—the proud, defiant American people—are being turned against one another, distracted by petty squabbles while your true adversaries grow richer, fatter, and more powerful.
Do you think America is sustained by passivity? By mere complaint? By waiting for someone else to act? NO! It is forged by the will of those who refuse to accept mediocrity, by those who demand justice, by those who do not simply talk of virtue but embody it.
Do not let cowardice and greed be your legacy. STAND UP! REFORM WHAT IS BROKEN! CAST ASIDE those who would divide you for their own gain! DEMAND BETTER from your leaders, from your institutions, and from yourselves.
The work of democracy is never done, and the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. It is NOT ENOUGH to call upon the ghosts of men like myself—you must EMBODY THE COURAGE, THE RESILIENCE, AND THE UNRELENTING AMERICAN SPIRIT that once made this nation great.
BE BOLD. BE JUST. BE FEARLESS.
Yours in the fight, THEODORE ROOSEVELT