4/19/2020 Historical perspective
As always, I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and safe. I remain healthy and employed, and acutely aware of being so lucky in both.
This has been a tough week. It has brought news of the devastation of the pandemic, including touches in our extended family and community of loved ones. And, we are seeing how many members of our communities and families are in need of economic support, which can be mired in red tape or simply used up. I found it difficult to find something positive and unifying to share. I wondered if I would have to say, simply, we are united in grief.
I've been watching the PBS documentary "The Roosevelts." The scope of history provides some comfort, as it expands the perspective of challenges faced and overcome. In many ways, we've been here before, and our past can offer insights.
As Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their allies worked, in an entirely imperfect way, to pull the nation out of the Great Depression, he reiterated over and over the vision of federal government as the protector of the lives and livelihoods of its people.
The comments below are from his speech accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party for his second term in 1936: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/acceptance-speech-at-the-democratic-national-convention-1936/
As FDR made this speech, fascism was spreading in Europe; and while many of the early efforts to get Americans back to work had been successful, others had failed and/or been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Depression raged on.
"...out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital – all undreamed of by the fathers – the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service."
"For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor – other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men (sic) could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness."
"...Government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster."
"We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a Nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization. Faith – in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships. Hope – renewed because we know so well the progress we have made. Charity – in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves."
Compare these words to those coming out of our current White House, which I won't amplify by repeating them here.
Our call, I think, is to uphold the vision of government as primarily responsive to and inclusive of all the people it represents; to foster its ability to help all its people; and to insist that our representatives, at all levels, are accountable for the health of the larger community.
As always, this is sent with deep appreciation for your wisdom, your companionship, and your efforts. We are truly in this together.
Liz