Acceptance Speech from Bob McDonald

Please, thank you very much.

I’m so overwhelmed.

David and Eric and Lee and all of my good friends here tonight, this family that we have together.

I’m overwhelmed by the people on the video.

Um, I was a little curious whether David was going to tell you the full story about my time at Proctor and Gamble.

Um, my beautiful wife of 44 years, Diane is with me tonight and as we’ve…

As has been said many times, um, you don’t do these kinds of jobs by yourself.

It’s a it’s a family service and when uh we first met and we were to get married, uh the comments Diane got were, well, it’s a good thing you’re a school teacher because you’re going to keep moving around the world and that’s the career you’re the only career you can possibly have in the military.

But um, actually there’s a story at the Proctor and Gamble company that’s a little bit more personal.

Um, and it’s I didn’t know if David was going to tell it, but I it’s well known within the company, so I thought I’d share it with you tonight.

In 1989 when we moved as a family from Toronto, Canada to Manila in the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo exploded and our soon to be house was covered with Lahar and volcanic ash.

And then when we moved from Manila in the Philippines to Kobe, Japan in 1995, the Great Hanshin earthquake occurred.

And our house was separated from its plumbing and its foundation in Japan.

So we lived in a hotel for six months.

But the company line was that you wanted to know where the McDonald’s were going to move next.

So you could make sure you weren’t there.

Well, seeing David here tonight made me know we were going to be safe and that Diane and I promise will be no natural catastrophe tonight that will befall us.

I want to thank uh Lee Anderson, who is the the leader I hope to grow up to be someday.

Um, Lee has just done tremendous work here with hiring our heroes, uh, generally with uh his company having over 20% uh veteran and spouse employment with uh all the work that he’s done at West Point.

He’s our largest uh benefactor at West Point.

Um, all of this is just state, state, states about Lee and Penny and how they have um, have they contributed to the lives of others.

So thank you so much for that, Lee.

As David said, my my life’s purpose is to try to improve the lives of others.

You know, to those who who much has been given, much is expected.

And um, but when Eric first called me about this award, I say, Eric, you know, I I really can’t accept this award.

I’m not I’m not worthy of it, number one.

And number two, I’m not done yet.

You may have heard that recurring theme even from President Bush.

Um, just yesterday I was elected the chairman of the board of the Association of graduates of my beloved alma mater West Point.

Beat Navy, beat Air Force.

But I wanted to share with you tonight an insight that I know will um resonate with all of you because it certainly resonated with me.

Um, last October, I was speaking and I know Matt Amadon is here tonight.

It’s been my privilege to work with him at the uh George W. Bush Center on the military on the military uh service initiative.

Um, when we were speaking to the cohort that we had, which is a great cohort, many of whom are here.

Tonight, they’re fantastic leaders.

Um, I I spoke about the importance of being the person in the arena.

Uh, I’ve always sparked to those words that Teddy Roosevelt spoke at the Sorbonne in um, in 1910.

And allow me to to just paraphrase briefly some of those words.

It’s not the critic that that counts, not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the individual who’s actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again.

Because the effort, no effort is without error or shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who spends themselves in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

While I was preparing these remarks for the um, Bush uh cohort, I did some research on this speech and unfortunately, throughout history, we’ve known this speech as the man in the arena. And that’s not the title that President Roosevelt gave it.
The title of the speech, and I think this is insightful, is citizenship in a Republic.

Citizenship in a Republic.
To me, those words are even more insightful today knowing the title of the speech.  It’s what’s required of all of us in a Republic if we want to keep this fragile thing called democracy alive.

It requires all of us to continue to stay in the arena.

And not become the critics outside the arena, criticizing the person in the arena who stumbles and is bloody or falls.

Now, if there’s any group that knows this, it’s this group.

It’s veterans, veterans and their families.

They know this better than anyone.

You all know this better than anyone, and in a sense, it’s those of us who have been veterans and have been in the military family that have to teach other Americans this trait.

You know, I always think back to that last scene of of Spielberg’s saving Private Ryan, when Captain Miller, who gave his life in combat, is there in in the Omaha cemetery.

And Private Ryan stands in front and turns to his family and and says very simply, um, I’ve tried to live my life the best I could.

I hope that in least your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me, thinking of course of of Captain Miller having given his life.

Now, I imagine myself, but I know you imagine yourself saying that every single day.

You know, have we done enough?

And I think what Teddy Roosevelt is telling us is if we want to maintain this fragile experiment called a democracy, we need to do more, we need to never leave the arena.

We need to make sure we tell the critic who’s outside the arena to get in with us, and we all need to collectively make sure we keep it up because uh, we can’t stop.

This is too important.

It’s too important to all of us, it’s too important to the history of the world.

I thank you for this recognition and I thank you for your service to our country.

And I look forward to continuing to serve with you.

Thank you.