Fear Not

Have you ever wondered what the rest of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech was about when he said, "... the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" during his first inaugural address to the nation. It is as relevant today as it was in 1933. Without further ado ...

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I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days


In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.


More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.


Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.


True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.


The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.


Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.


Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.


Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.


Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.


Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.


Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.


There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.


Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.


The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.


In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.


If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.


With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.


Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.


It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.


I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.


But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.


For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.


We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.


We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.


In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.


VIA History Matters Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random House, 1938), 11–16. 

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Why I Am A Democrat

I was just a little kid when John F. Kennedy ran for President and I can remember my family talking about the election. I remember my Pawpaw saying that he was worried about voting for Kennedy because he was a Catholic and he was worried about the Pope's control of him. At the time I didn't know very much about Catholics so I didn't even understand who the Pope was. Now that I am older and can look back at the issue I understand how much this affected my family and this country. I am proud to say that my family voted for President Kennedy and they never did have to worry about the decisions the President made being influenced by his religion. When the President met an untimely death at the hands of an assassin the Presidency was handed over to Lyndon B. Johnson, another democrat.

Johnson didn't worry about alienating his political party or the members of the southern states who were forced kicking and screaming into the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century. He upheld the rights of all Americans to have equal rights and ordered the National Guard to protect black students who were bussed into white schools and had to go through angry white protesters who were afraid of integration. I didn't realize at the time how important that decision would prove to be and I didn't ever have the opportunity to go to school with black children because we lived in a rural community  and integration didn't happen until years later. The city schools were integrated long before the county schools. Some people took their children out of the local city school and sent them to county schools because they were afraid to have their children exposed to black people.

Many of my fellow girlfriends voiced their support for equality for black people and integration and would have liked nothing better than to have our high school integrated. The boys who went to school with me were another story. They voiced their opposition to integration and used vulgar language describing what they would do if we were to become integrated. That is when I began to see a difference in the way many men and women viewed things. More women were open-minded and accepting than their male counterparts.

The only time I ever supported a Republican was when Richard Nixon promised to end the Viet Nam war if he was elected. After his resignation in disgrace I never supported another Republican. I learned that every candidate will promise whatever it takes to win the election. Nixon was stupid and tried to steal information from the Democratic organization to secure the election. If he had of had faith in himself he might not have been exposed as a dirty stinking politician who would do anything to win.

After President Ford served one term the country was so disillusioned that they finally elected a southern man President. I was so proud of Jimmy Carter for his leadership and felt that he was doing the best he could when everyone in Washington considered him an "outsider" and he had to struggle with the politics of both parties without absolute support from his party. He worked tirelessly to try to free the hostages up until the day he turned the office over to President Ronald Reagan. President Carter didn't cause the gas shortage. He was the first President who had to deal with crazy Iranians and gas shortages. Thirty years later the problems that were first exposed in the '70's are still plaguing us and we are still buying oil from the Middle East.

Ronald Reagan led our country into conservatism and tried to squash liberalism. People across America praised him as a hero. He was the President when the Iron Curtain came down so he took credit for saying, ". . . tear down that wall!" Other than that I never could see where his policies helped or influenced my life. We bought a house during the 80's but that was thanks to the help of family members, not the Reagan administration.

I believe that President Bill Clinton was one of the best Presidents in my lifetime and he could have accomplished so much more if he hadn't been the target of a "witchhunt" by the likes of Kenneth Star and other Republicans. I didn't care about his relationship with other women and didn't want to hear all the dirty details about Monica Lewinsky. The only problem I had with him was the same problem that Hillary had with him, that he was having more sex than she was. Other than that, it is nobody's business who the President is boinking if he isn't having sex with a Russian spy, etc. From what I have read and heard many, many Presidents have had extra-marital relations when they were President even Republicans. I think it is amazing how much Clinton was able to accomplish while he was going through such a public scandal.

After George W. Bush won the election, or stole it, depending on how you see it, we faced the worse crisis this country has faced since the Bay of Pigs during the Kennedy era. The Bush administration cranked up the fear and used it to sway and control the country. Every time something came out in the news against Bush or his administration they put up a heightened alert and effectively squashed any other issue. When they started telling people to buy duct tape and how to secure their homes in case of attact I knew that we were being played for suckers. How is plastic and duct tape going to protect us from chemical warfare or a bomb? That's just ignorant. That's about as stupid as the safety drills we endured in the 50's when we were supposed to duck, cover, and supposedly survive an atomic bomb. Give me a break!

I am surprized that I didn't have a stroke during the Bush years. When he declared war on Saddam Hussein because of the terrorists who hijacked planes on September 11, 2001 I was incredulous. They didn't attack us! The Saudi's attacked us. Bush grounded all planes except for the planes that carried Ben Laden's family members who lived in America out of the country.  He used the excuse of the hijackings to declare war on the wrong country. Actually no country attacked us. It was a bunch of crazy radicals who did. We have crazy radicals who live in this country. Some of they would like to kill other people. If they killed thousands of people we wouldn't condemn all Christians because of the nuts who commit violence in the name of God. We would condemn the radical organizations who support them.

After the attacks by the terrorists the whole world was in support of us. Every country in the United Nations was in support of America. Instead of using that support to curtail terrorism GW Bush declared war on Iraq because Saddam refused to have inspectors examine their nuclear faculties. I believe, and believed all along, that Saddam Hussein didn't want inspectors to examine the nuclear faculties because he was afraid of his enemies around him, like Iran. If Iran had realized that they really didn't have nuclear weapons they would have invaded Iraq and killed them all. They hated each other. Iran is still led by an extremist regime which suppresses all people's human rights. Saddam Hussein had come into power during the Reagan administaration which funneled weapons into Iraq to fight the Russians and Iran.

America would never have elected President Obama if the country hadn't gone through the insanity of the Bush years. By the time of the elections we were saddled with two choices and neither one seemed like the right choice. McCain ran for President twice. You would think that since he had been a Senator for years he would have known many excellent qualified candidates for his Vice Presidential candidate. Instead he met and chose an unknown woman who was the governor of Alaska. He hadn't even known her for very long. How could that have been better than an established candidate like Lieberman, etc? He definitely didn't have her vetted or he would have known that she was known to stab the people in the back who helped her get her start in politics in Alaska like Ted Stevens, etc.

I imagine that Hillary Clinton was glad she didn't win the Democratic nomination after the collapse of Wall Street and the mess Bush left this country in. I had to weigh my decision of my vote on whether I believed that McCain would be a better President or whether Obama would be a better President. I shudder to think what this country would be like with McCain and Palin in the White House. He abandoned his principles to win an election and Palin would have tried to take control of the office. The only reason he chose Palin is because he thought Clinton would be his opponent. That was a stupid and cowardly move which backfired.

I promised to tell you Why I Am A Democrat so this is the reason. I asked my Pawpaw one time why we were Democrat. He said that he believed in the Democrats because of what he went through in the depression. He said that Truman  didn't believe in helping the poor people and people were starving to death. He and his brothers hopped on railcars and rode the rails from city to city trying to find work so that they could send money home to their families. He said the Republicans didn't care about the suffering of the people who were crushed by the economy. He said that Roosevelt helped the poor people. FDR started the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) and employed young men to work creating our state parks. If Roosevelt hadn't helped this country during the greatest depression the world had ever known we wouldn't have been the great country that we are today. He said that the Republicans only care about themselves and making money but the Democrats support the poor and the weak and the needy.

I always admired Ted Kennedy because he came from a wealthy family but he never tired of fighting for the rights of the poor and middle class. He was a great advocate for those who couldn't speak for themselves. People condemned Kennedy for Chappaquiddick when he wrecked and a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, died. Because he didn't report the wreck right away he was condemned and was never able to win the Presidental bid. His service to the country and the people of the United States which spanned over 40 years was his greatest legacy and, in my humble opinion, was a far more profound and lasting gift than the short but tragic political carreers of his brothers, John and Bobby Kennedy.

This country is great because every person has a voice in the government and we have people fighting for the rights of us all. I am not rich and I will never be rich. I don't even want to be rich if it means that I want to suppress the rights of the poor and the minorites and the less fortunate.

AS ALWAYSPIO