“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 world 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.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882- 1945)
In honor of President’s Day, here are the “four freedoms” from the inimitable FDR. His views and tactics were controversial. His true motives unclear. But as far as presidents go, he was a pretty damn good one.
[Header image source: Parade]
Those freedoms are worth defending to the death, but if possible avoiding the death
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Yeah, that’s a good plan 🙂
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A couple of years ago, we visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Its central room houses Rockwell’s large paintings of each of the Four Freedoms.
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Oh, lucky! I love Norman Rockwell and would love to see those paintings in person someday!
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