Opinion: Embracing FDR’s Four Freedoms would serve the country well
To the community,
We live in a troubled world. A time of economic depression and senseless wars. In a way the scene is similar to the mid-1930s and early ’40s. And we are in the middle of a political contest for the highest office in the land. And the political parties are in a muddle. What to do, what to do. They are not clearly framing the issues that need to be debated in clear language. But there is a way to do that.
In his 1941 state of the union address, FDR delivered the Four Freedoms. Freedom of religion, freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech.
Bill Crawford
At FDR’s request, Archibald MacLeish put together a group to create a pamphlet for widest possible publication o n the Four Freedoms. The group was formed. The pamphlet was written by Reinhold Niebuhr on religion, Max Lerner on freedom from fear, Malcolm Cowley on freedom from want, and E.B. White on freedom of speech. White did the rewrite.
I believe the issues of the Four Freedoms are alive and need national attention and discussion by the political parties. We need clear language to outline the nation’s problems. The rebirth of the Four Freedoms, what those words mean, would be helpful. If done, that might give the nation direction, purpose, and achievement at home in nation building. Political parties should lead the debate. If they do not, we will continue to muddle and drift along to our ruin.
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
Bill
I would like to hear your thoughts about Tony O’Rourke and what he has done to this City and it’s employees.
It seems as though there has been no news since they found out that he was looking for a job in Medford Oregon.
Hope you will do an article, I have always respected your opinion,
Thanks
Excellent article, but I would suggest there is something more fundamental than FDR’s notion of Four Freedoms. All of us have a fundamental, constitutional “right to be left alone,”– without being forced to run a gauntlet of government rules, agents, police and public serpents who do nothing but make our life more miserable, expensive and difficult.
The concept of the right to be left alone dates back to a 1928 Supreme Court wiretapping decision called Olmstead vs. the United States in which the Supreme Court Justice Brandeis said “the protection guaranteed by the amendments (of the Constitution) is much broader in scope. The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect . . . They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their sensations. They conferred as against the government the right to be left alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.”
How about a fifth freedom. The freedom to be free (of government oppression.)
You know like TRPA, Lahotan, etc.
When the dust settles and truth is told (even by liberal media) I predict…
Obama will be recognized as having done more damage to our civil liberties than any other president in America’s history.
Check out what Ted Nugent is saying today…
….yes Virginia, it is that bad.
Joe!! Ted Nugent in his own words ” i will be dead or in jail if President Obama is reelected”
Obama will be considered the worst Presidents America has ever seen is my prediction.
Alex, I know what Nugent said.
My point is that things have become very bad under this president, he, with the aid of liberal media, has divided the nation into an extreme situation.
Joe I agree, we need someone like W again because he really united the country and the world. Or maybe it was that he united the world against our country, it was something like that anyway.
Alex, taking an entertainer’s statements about politics too seriously is always sketchy. Remember when Alec Baldwin and his then-wife Kim Bassinger swore that if Bush was elected they would leave the country? They’re still here. Unfortunately.
In the words of ‘orale’:
“Don’t feed the troll!”
It’s funny how all the online comment boards are filled with conservative blowhards who vomit out vitriolic post without end day after day after day. I guess conservatives don’t have jobs or lives.
(i.e. these conservatives who post vitriol nonstop like Joe)
I’m pretty sure ever since George Washington has been president, there has been a vociferous group of those with opposing beliefs and policies of whatever person, and whatever party he belonged to, that was occupying the White House. And I would be fairly safe to bet that among those voicing their opposing views towards the sitting president, there would be a small fringe group who would be predicting total gloom and doom over the future of this nation due to the policies of the sitting president. YET WE ARE STILL HERE!
David says:
conservative blowhards who vomit out vitriolic post
I say:
you’re guilty of the very thing you claim others do.
It’s funny how all the online comment boards are filled with conservative blowhards who vomit out vitriolic post without end day after day after day. I guess conservatives don’t have jobs or lives
Oh. Is Smedley a conservative? Thing Fish? Conservation Robot? Alex Campbell? Sno Heather?
Freedom of religion, freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech.
Gotta remember this was FDR here. The man who managed to create much of the system that plagues us today. Freedom of Religion and speech are right there in our Constitution, and are granted by God.
But freedom from fear and want are NOT human rights by any stretch of the imagination. Both of those things are part and parcel of the human condition, and what makes us strive to be better people and work harder for ourselves and our families. Why else would we bust our humps at our jobs?
I never thought much of FDR, and I certainly don’t think much of his idea of profundity.
Conservatives love fear. War on terror, war on drugs, smoking gun mushroom cloud, etc.
Fear is also major component of most religion.
Freedom of religion implies freedom from religion.
Fear and want are part of the human condition for people who lack internal spiritual direction. Fear the angry man in the sky. Nothing, is what I want. Want is for mindless consumers. Want is the root of all unhappiness.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness*.
*coming soon after this short commercial break
Keep buying stuff and fear the imaginary sky man. It is part of your condition.
Bushie Boo,Enron,Halliburton,Cheney and Rumsfeld Too