"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want--which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941
From this speech came the Four Freedoms Monument now located in Madison, Florida. The sculptor, Walter Russell was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 19, 1871 and attended school until he age of 10. Due to family financial reversals, he had to quit school and go to work. He was a musician from infancy and at age 13 became a church organist where he was paid. From this he entered art school and as he later said, it was one of the best things that every happened.
Russell as a musician later became an artist, a writer, an architect, and a sculptor over his life span of 85 years. He often alleged that there is unlimited help from the Universal Intelligence and all we have to do is plug in to it with desire and have faith.
We do live in a country where there is opportunity and in spite of reversals, we can move ahead into something new and exciting. We live in a country where we do have freedom of speech. Isn't it wonderful that everyone can express their ideas, their gripes and opinions? Isn't it wonderful that we live in a country where we have the freedom to worship a God of our choice, or to claim no allegiance to any god? Isn't it wonderful that we live in a country where there is the possibility of freedom from want? One only has to believe in oneself and to take the initiative to be creative in whatever endeavor one is inclined to pursue. Isn't it wonderful that we live in a country where there is freedom from fear?
I know some will say that we have plenty to fear, however there is a story of a man who went into a darkened shed and saw a snake coiled, ready to strike. He was fearful and when someone entered behind him and turned on the light, he saw the snake was actually a coiled rope. Each of us can take the fear out of our life by seeing something great coming from a challenge. There is always another side to the coin. Seek and you will find. Ask and it will be given.
