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FDR --born today January 30, 1882
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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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