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FDR --born today January 30, 1882  

stevenjosepht 78M
312 posts
1/30/2014 4:25 pm
FDR --born today January 30, 1882

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born today January 30, 1882.

He was a person of privilege, a relative to Teddy Roosevelt.
He was struck with polio when he was something like 39 years
of age...

He first became president in 1932--at the height of the
Great Depression... In contrast to Hoover, he wanted to
do something, and felt only the national government could
respond to address the implications of the Great Depression...
(There are those who believe that despite his efforts,
only America getting into a war economy got America out
the Depression.)

He never got around to writing a biography--he would die
in his 63rd year--but most people describe him as lacking
any kind of intellectual depth, any kind of capacity for
introspection...

Having myself grown up in institutions--orphanages,
boarding schools, foster homes--there is that sense that
he was right--only the larger community can address these
pressing questions that press upon the individual..and
affect the entire community...

That he ended up sever ly handicapped and in office as Governor
of New York and then President for something like thirteen
years--his severe handicap gave him an insight into the
problems of the people afflicted by the Great Depression.
It is interesting to note that in the first inaugural address
he said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
But he immediately followed that with the words: "...nameless,
unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance." With use
of that word 'paralyzes' we know that he was speaking
to himself as much as to the nation. And while he did not wear
his handicap openly, neither was it something like a state
secret...

Reagan was wrong when he said: "Government is not
a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Only the government can see the long distance implications
of events and address those events without parochial concerns
intervening... And in the end, government means people
like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln,
Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt,
John F. Kennedy, etc... (I know that's a HUGE sweeping
generalization--but then that's why people write
books.)


He was able to 'walk' by holding a cane in one hand, and with his other arm hang on to another person; by shifting his body, he could move his legs which were encased in braces. The only time he mentioned his braces and handicap in public was when he addressed Congress after Yalta--he begged Congress forgiveness for not wanting to stand after an arduous journey with something like 20 pounds of braces. If a photographer took his picture with him in his wheelchair, the Secret Service would immediately take the camera, and expose the film. In the Hyde Park Museum, of the thousands of photos there are something like only four photos that show him in a wheel chair

So Happy Birthday FDR!

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