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Monday, September 26, 2011

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

JR likes to read books about presidents and significant individuals from the founding fathers to around the Second World War. He's rather eclectic in his interests. One of his favorites is Franklin Roosevelt. When he found out that there was a new (for him) memorial he just had to go.




This memorial is separated into room-like gardens with statuary mingled around each room. As soon as JR saw it he wished I had been able to be there. I love statuary gardens. 


I'm not the Roosevelt scholar like JR is but I think that a man that makes statements like this was pretty much ahead of his time.



Each room has at least one waterfall. 
According to the National Parks website; "The waterfalls throughout the memorial are there for several reasons. First, they are symbolic of FDR’s connection to and love of water (he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I). Second, they block out some of the noise from the airport located directly across the Potomac River." 
They are so practical. We put water features at our home because I love the sound of water and I'm a bit of a eastern religion/hippy/zen weirdo because I insist that all our water features be near a door. Keeps out the evil spirits, don't ya know.



He was voted in for an unheard of 4 terms during one of the most difficult times in U.S. history. He presided over the country during WWII and the Great Depression.
 

Where farmers and urban dwellers like were losing their jobs, homes, farms and families. My aunts remember the Great Depression. They still don't eat beans or onions because they ate them so often during the depression. My grandfather dug up his backyard lawn to put in a large vegetable garden in order to feed his family, which he tended until he died in 1973.


Roosevelt's fireside chats became legendary. He used the radio to keep the people of the U.S. informed, to promote his agenda (the New Deal) and to give hope to the citizens.


It would be nice if politicians of today remembered that they have jobs because the American people have trusted them to do the right thing.
 

Roosevelt was stricken with polio. He never walked without aid again. The media respected the privacy of presidents and the American people really were not aware that he had a disability. From the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library;
"On August 10, 1921, FDR developed acute symptoms of poliomyelitis while visiting his summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. He was thirty-nine years old. Based on the incubation period of the polio virus, it is believed that FDR most likely was infected while visiting a large Boy Scout encampment at Bear Mountain, New York on July 28, 1921."

 

JR didn't get a very good picture of this statement but what he got resonates today.

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

In this day and age the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking and the poor are getting poorer. Politicians, take heed!

I'll stop preaching now.


On top of all that FDR was a dog person.That scores pretty high in my book. "Seven years later the President received a black Scottish terrier puppy as a gift and named him Murray, the Outlaw of Fala Hill. Fala became his constant companion for the rest of his life." FDR Library

That is JR's look at the FDR memorial. He was really impressed and I wish I would have been able to see it with him.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Love,
M

PS: it's Monday so try to make it meatless.

10 comments:

  1. I loved the FDR Memorial. It is such a contrast to some of the other memorials.

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  2. Another reason for me to come back to DC.

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  3. Other than Stalin, FDR was the only politician of the 20th C that had any clue when he was about. It will take beyond the hundred years of his death for the historians to get near the true man for 'tis only now are they realising just how much was hidden. How mush was edited during his life and just after. How truly he divided between the public and private and just how locked down was the private.

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  4. That is my very favorite memorial - I think it's the best one by far.

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  5. I really, really like that memorial! I enjoyed my visit there very much.

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  6. I've seen pictures of FDR with his dog (the first and only? sculpture depicting a president sitting down), but didn't know there were so many other sculptures. Maybe it's just me, but the one of the men standing in line is kinda unsettling and creepy, like a Soviet war memorial.

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  7. I have absolutely GOT to visit that memorial. It looks amazing.

    Jay

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  8. We need an FDR today. If we had one, I would have no choice but to quit my job and immediately join his campaign.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjSTQwamo8M

    "For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

    We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

    They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

    Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

    I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master."

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  9. Boy did this ever bring back memories of my parents...and my Texas family that LOVED FDR. The whole thing is wonderful! I hope to see it someday, I really do.

    I loved his wife also...she was wonderful!

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

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