Sixty-seven years have passed since the evening of January 11, 1944, an evening on which the voice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt filled the airwaves of a nation at war. On that evening, in one his radio fireside chats, Roosevelt addressed an anxious audience of millions of listeners who sensed that the greatest battles and most perilous days of a world on fire were yet ahead—just ahead.
In his talk Roosevelt reminded his listeners that there would come a day when the present struggles would be behind them, and shared with them a vision of the future—a vision of peace, prosperity and security. On that night Americans felt close to their president and close to one another.
If ever there has been a generation of Americans whose patriotism and common sense were unassailable, it was the generation of our parents. The Greatest Generation, those men and women of unflinching courage, patriotism and purpose who made the painful sacrifices demanded in labor, treasure and blood to deliver this nation from the deprivations of the Great Depression and the deadly global menace of the Axis Powers. They knew well for whom and for what they fought. They fought for their families and for the world Franklin Roosevelt described.
Roosevelt spoke of a second Bill of Rights—an economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee to every man and woman a share in post-war prosperity. It was a plan that met with near universal enthusiasm from working and fighting Americans. It was, simply, a proposal to do what is fair, just and right—to do the things that are ennobling of a people. Nothing more, nothing less.
Millions of Roosevelt’s listeners that night knew firsthand the despair of life in migrant camps. They had first endured the hardships of camp life, then the hardships of life in foxholes and pup tents. They calculated that they had earned the stability and security of clean and decent, if modest, homes for themselves and their families.
They believed they had earned the rights to be free from hunger and unnecessary pain and death. They believed access to quality, affordable health care to be their due.
They believed they had earned for their children a right to an education and a chance to transform their dreams into reality.
In short, Americans from Bangor to Los Angeles, from the European theater of war to the Phillipine Sea, believed they were fighting for the right to be free of crushing poverty, protected from the ravages of extreme want and deprivation. They believed they were winning for themselves the right to dignity.
Roosevelt’s proposed extension of the Bill of Rights gave rise to no mass marches on Washington, no staged public rallies of men wearing three cornered hats, no billboards depicting the President with a bone in his nose, no cries against the formation of fictitious death panels nor vitriolic screams of “taking back our country.” On the contrary, the Greatest Generation was soberly engaged in a struggle for a better America in which they hoped to live better lives.
No sooner were the ticker tape parades of Victory In Europe Day and the celebrations of Victory Over Japan Day quieted than did the a new invasion begin—an unrelenting, all-out attack upon the dreams of a nation by emerging superpowers of greed and exploitation. The titans of commerce and industry wielded the power to crush what Hitler could not. Banks, brought back to life by the sacrifice of their victims, turned upon their saviors with the treachery of a Judas, and legions of lobbyists and influence peddlers squeezed all decency from elected leaders like the splatter of overripe oranges on a busy freeway.
For sixty-seven years these enemies of Americans have kept from us the freedom our parents and grandparents won. For sixty-seven years our country has been occupied by forces foreign to human decency and all compassion. Not only have the dreams of our parents been lost, they have largely faded in memory.
Please take a moment to listen to excerpts from Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chat of sixty-seven years ago by playing the video at the head of this article. Listen and try to remember the dreams of your youth, the hopes and aspirations you had for your life. Think about the love you have for your children, and think about the pain in the hearts of mothers and fathers throughout America at this hour who cannot provide food and shelter for their children. Think about what life in this country would be if there were no homeless, none hungry, none suffering and none dying for want of medical care.
Consider that Americans are not a free people. As President Roosevelt said, “True individual freedom cannot exist without true economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.”
Historically, Americans have always been slow to recognize a threat, slow to anger, and slow to act. They have always preferred peace to war, but never have they shrunk from the honor of defending our freedoms.
Consider that sixty-seven years have come and gone.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you serious? I’m having a hard time following what part of the last 67 years indicates to you that the Greatest Generation would support this current “protest” against Wall Street. After reading their list of “demands” (really, complaints!), I have yet to understand what they want except to turn the United States of America into a socialist state in which, theoretically, we all share resources equally. How well did this theory work in the Soviet Union or in Cuba, and how well is it working in China now? Ask the Chinese people if they would prefer the current system of “sharing the wealth” to one in which they get to decide democratically who their leaders will be!
No system is perfect, and certainly ours has its flaws. But this protest against people who have money is outrageous! And, by the way, this comment comes from one who doesn’t come anywhere close to being described as “wealthy”.
“I’m having a hard time following what part of the last 67 years indicates to you that the Greatest Generation would support this current “protest” against Wall Street. ” — Becky
Becky, one would assume that a generation which elected Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency four times likely supported his platform and vision—a platform and vision which, at every stage of his public life, included and advanced his Economic Bill of Rights as presented in his January, 1944 speech. This speech has been widely circulated by those protesting on Wall Street and beyond, and from that I conclude that the protesters share the vision of our parents and grandparents who repeatedly cast their ballots in support of the same.
Your comment has merit only to the extent that it recognizes your inability to understand what the Wall Street protesters want. As a result, it is impossible to address the rest of your comment meaningfully. So, suffice it to say that the grievances and concerns of those who are “occupying” Wall Street and other places around America have nothing at all to do with promoting socialism or communism. Nor do they have anything to do with the Chinese, Russians, Martians or goblins in your mind. They are concerned with economic justice and freedom, two concepts which once found a home in the hearts and minds of most Americans.
Can you enlighten me, Prentice, as to what the “Occupiers” want? I’ve read their manifesto and still have no idea! No goblins here, btw.
Becky, the first essential point to realize is that the OWS movement has not issued any “manifesto.” It has issued a declaration approved by its General Assembly in which it recites many, but certainly not all, of the injustices and inequities which it would like to see addressed, and it calls upon like minded individuals to “Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.” OWS has not offered any legislative agenda, but rather sought to spark a national dialogue from which a consensus legislative agenda may emerge.
I think this quote from Katrina vanden Huevel in the Washington Post sums it up as well as anything else I’ve read:
“The movement doesn’t need a policy or legislative agenda to send its message. The thrust of what it seeks — fueled both by anger and deep principles — has moral clarity. It wants corporate money out of politics. It wants the widening gap of income inequality to be narrowed substantially. And it wants meaningful solutions to the jobless crisis. In short, it wants a system that works for the 99 percent.”