Embodying Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Remains a Vital Challenge

[DonViejo]

Harvey J. Kaye

Through a depression and a world war, Franklin Roosevelt successfully challenged Americans to embody and protect the Four Freedoms. It’s time we reaffirmed that commitment.

On April 12, 1946—the first anniversary of the passing of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt—the progressive writer and editor Max Lerner published a column titled simply “FDR: The People Remember.”In it, Lerner wrote: “A few days ago, when it had become clear that the whole nation would observe the first anniversary of FDR’s death … the New York Daily News [which had always hated FDR] published a griping editorial. Why, it asked, should Americans be observing both Roosevelt’s birthday and his death-day? Even for Washington and Lincoln one observance day was enough. Why should this fellow rate two?”

The answer,” Lerner replied, “is that the people remember in their own way.” And recalling how the late president had rallied Americans to fight, first, the Great Depression and, then, Fascism, Lerner spoke of how they might well be remembering their late president:

“They remember the collapse of an economy in 1929, the pathetic inaction of the men who boasted themselves the leaders of America, the Hoovervilles, the bread lines, the farmers’ riots, the bonus march, the battle of Anacostia Flats, the blank and fearful despair of the world’s greatest nation…

“They remember the crippled man to whom they turned for leadership … They remember his words: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ and the succession of crisis measures that came with the staccato authority of communiqués from a battlefield. They remember the hope that began surging back into their hearts, the sense that whatever mistakes might be made, America had found its greatness again.”

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/06/embodying-franklin-roosevelt-s-four-freedoms-remains-a-vital-challenge.html

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R! How is this not on The Greatest Page?!