Given the events unfolding in Paris, and in Nigeria, and in too many other places to count, Im reminded of FDRs SOTU address in 1941. So much of what he said 75 years ago addresses the same concerns -- unfortunately -- we have today. Highlights are below. I encourage you to read or listen to the full address at the link below. What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition -- clear, definite opposition -- to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past. Today, thinking of our children and of their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas… Even when the World War broke out in 1914, it seemed to contain only small threat of danger to our own American future. But as time went on, as we remember, the American people began to visualize what the downfall of democratic nations might mean to our own democracy… The American people have unalterably set their faces against that tyranny. I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world -- assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace... Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to give to the Congress information of the state of the union, I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders... We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests... 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 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. fdrlibrary.marist.edu/fourfreedoms
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:35:01 +0000
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