el discurso de NIXON

quizas es politicamente correcto pero ni tanto
fue Nixon peor q el resto... de los americanos o de cualquier politico?
da lo mismo: Nixon me atrae. Me atrae sus fracturas, sus paranoias, el sentir q nunca era del club de los privilegiados y elegidos, incluso cdo estaba en el poder.

me atrae como alguien q llega tan arriba, cae

Nixon me recuerda California, era el pdte cdo vivia alla, y me recuerda a mi papa mirando, x horas, el caso Watergate en la tele

este discurso, su discurso final, me parece brillante, sentido, inteligente, honesto y shakesperiano. Es quizas uno de los discursos mas bellos y sentidos jamas pronunciados; q se haya dicho, ademas, en ese momento de derrota, y que haya sido escrito por el, lo hace aun mas impresionante

ejemplos:

Always give your best, never get
discouraged, never be petty; always remember other may hate you, but those
who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

o este parrafo sublime:
We think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think that when we suffer 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 when 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 at the highest mountain.


Richard M. Nixon: Leaving White House

Following is the transcript of Late President Richard Nixon's Farewell
Speech to White House Staff that he did on August 9, 1974. Also, check his
August 8, 1974 Farewell speech to the Nation.

Farewell to the White House Staff

Members of the Cabinet, Members of the White House Staff, all of our friends
here: I think the record should show that this is one of those spontaneous things
that we always arrange whenever the President comes in to speak, and it will
be so reported in the press, and we don't mind because they have to call it
as they see it. But on our part, believe me, it is spontaneous.

You are here to say good-bye to us, and we don't have a good word for it in
English. The best is au revoir. We will see you again. I just met with the
members of the White House staff, you know, those who serve here in the
White House day in and day out, and I asked them to do what I ask all of you
to do to the extent that you can and, of course, are requested to do so: to
serve our next President as you have served me and previous Presidents --
because many of you have been here for many years -- with devotion and
dedication, because this office, great as it is, can only be as great as the
men and women who work for and with the President.

This house, for example, I was thinking of it as we walked down this hall,
and I was comparing it to some of the great houses of the world that I have
been in. This isn't the biggest house. Many, and most, in even smaller
countries are much bigger. This isn't the finest house. Many in Europe,
particularly, and in China, Asia, have paintings of great, great value,
things that we just don't have here, and probably will never have until we
are 1,000 years old or older.

But this is the best house. It is the best house because it has something
far more important than numbers of people who serve, far more important than
numbers of rooms or how big it is, far more important than numbers of
magnificent pieces of art.

This house has a great heart, and that heart comes from those who serve. I
was rather sorry they didn't come down. We said good-bye to them upstairs.
But they are really great. And I recall after so many times I have made
speeches, and some of them pretty tough, yet, I always come back, or after a
hard day -- and my days usually have run rather long -- I would always get a
lift from them because I might be a little down, but they always smiled.

And so it is with you. I look around here, and I see so many on this staff
that, you know, I should have been by your offices and shaken hands, and I
would love to have talked to you and found out how to run the world --
everybody wants to tell the President what to do, and boy he needs to be
told many times -- but I just haven't had the time. But I want you know that
each and everyone of you, I know, is indispensable to this Government. I am
proud of this Cabinet. I am proud of all the members who have served in our
Cabinet. I am proud of our sub-cabinet. I am proud of our White House staff.
As I pointed out last night, sure we have done some things wrong in this
Administration, and the top man always takes the responsibility, and I have
never ducked it. But I want to say one thing: We can be proud of it -- 5 1/2
years. No man or no woman came into this administration and left it with
more of this world's goods than when he came in. No man or no woman ever
profited at that public expense or the public till. That tells something
about you.

Mistakes, yes. But for personal gain, never. You did what you believed in.
Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. And I only wish that i were a wealthy man
-- at the present time I have got to find a way to pay my taxes --
[laughter] -- and if I were, i would like to recompense you for the
sacrifices that all have made to serve in Government.

But you are getting something in Government -- and I want you to tell this
to your children, and I hope the nation's children will hear it, too --
something in Government service that is far more important than money. It is
a cause bigger than yourself. It is the cause of making this the greatest
nation in the world, the leader of the world, because without our leadership
the world will know nothing but war, possible starvation, or worse, in the
years ahead. With our leadership it will know peace, it will know plenty.

We have been generous, and we will be more generous in the future as we are
able to. But most important, we must be strong here, strong in our hearts,
strong in our souls, strong in our belief, and strong in our willingness to
sacrifice, as you have been willing to sacrifice, in a pecuniary way, to
serve in Government.

There is something else I would like for you to tell your young people. You
know, people often come in and say, "What will I tell my kids?" They look at
government and say it is sort of a rugged life, and they see the mistakes
that are made. They get the impression that everybody is here for the
purpose of feathering his nest. That is why I made this earlier point -- not
in this Administration, no one single man or woman.

And I say to the, "There are many fine careers. This country needs good
farmers, good businessmen, good plumbers, good carpenters." I remembered my
old man. I think that they would have called him sort of a little man,
common man. He didn't consider himself that way. You know what he was? he
was a streetcar motorman first, and the he was a farmer, and then he had a
lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I can assure you.
He sold it before they found oil on it. [Laughter] And then he was a grocer.
But he was a great man because he did his job, and every job counts up to
the hilt, regardless of what happens.

Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all
of you would say this about your mother -- my mother was a saint. And I
think of her, two boys dying to tuberculosis, nursing four others in order
that she could take care of my older brother for 3 years in Arizona, and
seeing each of them die, and when they died, it was like one of her own.
Yes, she will have no books written about her. But she was a saint.

Now, however, we look to the future. I had a little quote in the speech last
night from T.R. As you know, I kind of like to read books. I am not
educated, but I do read books -- [laughter] -- and the T.R. quote was a
pretty good one. Here is another one I found as I was reading, my last night
in the White House, and 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 from 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 fare 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 that bar examiner
said, "We have just got to let the guy through." [Laughter]




We think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think that when we suffer 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 when 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 at the highest mountain.

And so I say to you on this occasion, as we leave, we leave proud of the
people who have stood by us and worked for us and served this country. We
want you to be proud of what you have done. We want you to continue to serve
in Government, if that is your wish. Always give your best, never get
discouraged, never be petty; always remember other may hate you, but those
who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

And so, we leave with high hopes, in good spirit and with deep humility, and
with very much gratefulness in our hearts. I can only say to each and every
one of you, we come from many faiths, we pray perhaps to different gods, but
really the same God in a sense, but I want to say for each and every one of
you, not only will we always remember you, not only will we always be
grateful to you but always you will be in our hearts and you will be in our
prayers.


Thank you very much.