Hagman relative praises activism

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Moorpark Acorn for the fine work you do for the Moorpark Community.

As Theresa Hagman Lawson's mother, I and the family appreciated how you covered the whole Moorpark city election among the rest.

We received a letter from a friend that I would like to share with you today. It is Veterans Day, after all, and he has served our country in times of peace and danger. The words thus have more intensity. They come from a veteran who time and time has risked all. Dan Sweeney wrote:

"I just wanted to be the first to offer my congratulations, not for the outcome of the election but more importantly for joining your grandfather, your father, and your brother in answering your country's call.

"When you serve as a lawman, or join the corps, jump out of airplanes for the army or offer to help govern our society, you have chosen to take your place in the arena. This is what advanced citizenship really means. This is what being a part of a great society is all about.

"I will leave you with the following thoughts: 'Governing is done by those who show up.' 'Governments are run by those who step up.'

"You have a great deal to be proud of in the way you conducted yourself during this campaign. I am proud to know you. You not only showed up, but then you stepped up. Too many people today whine and complain without having a solution or wanting to do the hard work of getting involved.

"Welcome to the arena and please remember what Theodore Roosevelt 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, 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.'" Maria M. Hagman Moorpark