From Michael Walter Harris first cousin, Dale Rose, on New Year’s Day
by
on January 1, 2012 1:33 PM in Politics
(from her Facebook page. I believe she’s talking about Lulu Colony, our great grandmother from the Catskills)
Remembering the Second Bill of Rights
My great grandmother detested Franklin Delano Roosevelt, referring to him in her clear, hard voice as “that man.”
She was a harsh woman, my grandmother, self-made, adventurous and yet rigid in her views. It would not have occurred to her, having herself risen above her simple beginnings, to reach back and offer a hand to those struggling in her wake. I imagine that she would have responded derisively to FDR’s 1937 speech in Chicago: “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished… The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
That speech came on the heels of the New Deal, the president’s healing prescription for a nation upended by the Great Depression. Roosevelt prescribed the Three Rs: Relief, Recovery and Reform. Despite the disapprobrium of early libertarians like my great-grandmother, Roosevelt led the nation through two wars — one against economic horror, and the other, World War Two.
In 1944, Roosevelt presided over a nation battered by those wars but victorious. Today, we are a nation battered by our own wars — recession, Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism. It is inspiring to hear Roosevelt’s state of the union address from that year:
***
We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however…these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ‘Necessitous men are not free men.’ People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however…these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ‘Necessitous men are not free men.’ People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
***
Whatever my great grandmother thought, we all can learn from “that man.”
After reading the article please share your thoughts in the comment section below.