Damn! Best paragraph I ever wrote! Wasn't that a humdinger?
On that sacred Easter Sunday of 1939 under the statue of the great emancipator, as Marian Anderson sang Schubert's Ave Maria before an integrated audience of seventy-five thousand people - and millions more across the land via the new medium of radio - who among the multitudes gathered would have dared to dream that they were bearing witness to the beginning of a long chain of events that would lead to the inauguration of the first African American president seventy years later?
The next time one of these "spokespersons" for the extreme right tries to co nvince you that Franklin D. Roosevelt hated black people, recognize it for what it is: a bald-faced lie. In the years Roosevelt was president there was a massive political migration of African Americans who bolted the "party of Lincoln" for the Democrats. That is no mere coincidence.
The mos t obvious stain on the legacy of President Roosevelt is the incarceration of Japanese citizens during the second world war. He didn't instigate what happened but it happened
all the same. He could have put a stop to it and yet he caved in. But
Roosevelt was just as guilty as the people he led. There was no mass
outrage over the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in 1942. That
outrage would only make itself known after a half century of historical hindsight.
Still, after all is debated, we're a better country because eighty years ago Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought and won the office of the presidency. As I stated earlier, very few people are alive today who have a conscious memory of what life was like in America for ordinary people before the N ew Deal ushered in a great new society for this country. Because of FDR, people began to see their government as a partner. It's been one of my missions to make sure that my generation understands this. They've pretty much forgotten that it was Roosevelt's liberal policies that saved America. Today many see the government as their enemy - and in some cases that's the truth. It doesn't have to be that way. We should strive for the perfection of government - not its abolition.
While we were there, Lori and I took a tour of the mansion where Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on the night of January 29, 1882, the place that he called "home" for all of his his sixty-three years. I could definitely feel the "Frankie vibe" as I call it. It is a beautiful old house and it is exactly as it was on the last night he ever slept there - including a glass of milk and a half-eaten tun a sandwich that he left on the dining room table. On our way out, we paused for a moment of reflective meditat ion in the Rose Garden where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt today sleep side-by-side. It's one of the most peaceful places on earth; the perfect spot to reflect upon where America has been, where it is, and where it may be heading. I just might pass this way again. In fact, I'm planning on it.
By the way, I was just kidding about the glass of milk and tuna sandwich. That wouldn't be quite sanitary. It's a very clean place.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
On that sacred Easter Sunday of 1939 under the statue of the great emancipator, as Marian Anderson sang Schubert's Ave Maria before an integrated audience of seventy-five thousand people - and millions more across the land via the new medium of radio - who among the multitudes gathered would have dared to dream that they were bearing witness to the beginning of a long chain of events that would lead to the inauguration of the first African American president seventy years later?
The next time one of these "spokespersons" for the extreme right tries to co nvince you that Franklin D. Roosevelt hated black people, recognize it for what it is: a bald-faced lie. In the years Roosevelt was president there was a massive political migration of African Americans who bolted the "party of Lincoln" for the Democrats. That is no mere coincidence.
Still, after all is debated, we're a better country because eighty years ago Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought and won the office of the presidency. As I stated earlier, very few people are alive today who have a conscious memory of what life was like in America for ordinary people before the N ew Deal ushered in a great new society for this country. Because of FDR, people began to see their government as a partner. It's been one of my missions to make sure that my generation understands this. They've pretty much forgotten that it was Roosevelt's liberal policies that saved America. Today many see the government as their enemy - and in some cases that's the truth. It doesn't have to be that way. We should strive for the perfection of government - not its abolition.
While we were there, Lori and I took a tour of the mansion where Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on the night of January 29, 1882, the place that he called "home" for all of his his sixty-three years. I could definitely feel the "Frankie vibe" as I call it. It is a beautiful old house and it is exactly as it was on the last night he ever slept there - including a glass of milk and a half-eaten tun a sandwich that he left on the dining room table. On our way out, we paused for a moment of reflective meditat ion in the Rose Garden where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt today sleep side-by-side. It's one of the most peaceful places on earth; the perfect spot to reflect upon where America has been, where it is, and where it may be heading. I just might pass this way again. In fact, I'm planning on it.
By the way, I was just kidding about the glass of milk and tuna sandwich. That wouldn't be quite sanitary. It's a very clean place.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
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