RICHARD NIXON WAS `IN THE ARENA'

The following is an excerpt from eighth district congressman Bill Emerson's statement to the US House of Representatives about the life and death of former president Richard M. Nixon.

Mr. Speaker:

Richard Nixon has departed his life.

For a person of my age and vintage, but perhaps not uniquely so, the loss of him makes so very poignant the age which we have lived. I first saw Richard Nixon in the most quintessential political experience noted in this century, the Whistle Stop Campaign. As a boy, twelve years of age, I was excused from school one bright October morning to go with my grandfather to Festus, Missouri, where the then-Vice Presidential candidate exhorted the onlookers in the interests of "peace and prosperity" as a part of the campaign of 1952. Richard Nixon was then, of course, Senator Nixon -- the Vice Presidential nominee on the ticket with General Dwight David Eisenhower. I last saw and had a word with former President Nixon at a luncheon in January hosted by Senator Bob Dole in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of President Nixon's first inauguration as President of the United States. That intervening period in which Richard Nixon has been such a preeminent player constitutes a most remarkable chapter in American history, and I feel very blessed to have been alive and to witness and to participate in this era.

In the days and weeks ahead, much will be said about Richard Nixon; and at an appropriate time for formal eulogies, I will wish to say more. But in the immediate aftermath of his passing, I want to share several items that, to me, speak volumes about Richard Nixon.

Theodore Roosevelt could not have had Richard Nixon in mind when speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910, he said: "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 and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who know the great enthusiasm, 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 know neither victory nor defeat."

To my way of thinking, if ever a statement could sum up a man, Theodore Roosevelt's comments depict the life of Richard Nixon.

I wish to offer my condolences to the wonderful family of Richard Nixon and to say thank you, Mr. President, for having been "in the arena."