FDR's speech, deja vu?

[Wildflower Fever]

http://www.leadershipnow.com/speeches/fdrfirstinauguralgoget.mp3 You can listen to, or save this full speech mp3

"The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself"
It's amazing how this speech could almost play today, word for word, and be relevant. It would be wonderful to see Obama elected, give a speech like this, and act on it like FDR did so beautifully.

[Amy in Vermont]

Since the day we invaded Iraq my email signature has read:

"Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind"
Franklin Delano Roosevelt


If you have never seen the FDR Memorial in DC, it is well worth the plane fare. Probably the most moving of all the presidential memorials we have, IMHO.

[DaveM]

Imagine today's media attempting to reduce this to a sound bite....the average attention span is no longer sufficient to take this in. Everyone knows the partial sentence which is quoted all the time....but listen to one minute of this speech following that line, and note the depth.

[JoanM]

If you have never seen the FDR Memorial in DC, it is well worth the plane fare. Probably the most moving of all the presidential memorials we have, IMHO.

The last time I was in DC I went there at night and spent hours going from "room to room"...I agree it is very moving.
jm

[Wildflower Fever]

Imagine today's media attempting to reduce this to a sound bite....the average attention span is no longer sufficient to take this in. Everyone knows the partial sentence which is quoted all the time....but listen to one minute of this speech following that line, and note the depth.

True, and although yesteryear's republican wasn't as despicable as today's, it would appear FDR was talking to the current administration and current stock exchange. Some things never change...:rolleyes: I'm ashamed to admit this is the first time I've heard the entire speech, but I have read large parts of it in the past.:o

[DaveM]

Some years ago, I owned several copies of Reader's Digest dating from just after FDR was elected (alas, I needed space a while back and sold them....probably could have had lots of fun with them right now). Naturally, the Digest was against him. In a piece entitled "Let's Stop Having Treasury Raids!", some editorialist whose name I have forgotten warned that if things kept going as they were, we could end up with a national debt of hundreds of millions (yes, millions) of dollars.

The piece stuck in my head when I first read it, as that was just after I'd heard a speech on the same subject (and with many of the same words) by that great champion of fiscal responsibility and small government, Ronald Reagan.

Let's face it, FDR would be unelectable today. His health would be attacked, along with his "qualifications", and it's not hard to imagine what Hannity and Colmes would have to say about his political philosophy. Ironic, really, since FDR was in many respects the first "media president".