Janus was the god who looked in both directions; toward the inside and the outside, the past and the future. So, perhaps January is a good month to consider an old speech delivered on January 6, 1941 by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt who addressed a nation that had recently been attacked, a world sorely pressed by dictatorships and militarism, and a people only beginning to be relieved of the burdens of the Great Depression.
The extended body includes a portion of the Four Freedoms Speech, and some resolutions for the New Year.
"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms."
Good for you Mr. Roosevelt! These aren't Constitutional "technicalities." They aren't a wish list predicated on the course of events. They aren't something nice to have around but expendable in time of crisis. These are four essential freedoms.
"The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world."
That's the freedom for a major newspaper to print the truth when it knows the truth, even when the truth hurts? That's the freedom to express opinions without restriction to "Free Speech Zones?" That's the freedom implied in the Enlightenment aphorism: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Also implied is that it is inherently unAmerican to meet critical speech with smear campaigns, untruthful denials, obfuscation, and outright lies.
"The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world."
In our world are we to have both freedom to practice our own faith without officially denouncing all others as heresy? Right here at home in our own little worlds are we free to practice our religions even when those tenets are not those of one particular sect? Are those who wish to be so, free from religion? Where only a few are free, no one is free.
"The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world."
Do we have an economic policy that protects every nation and the citizens of every nation? Do we have a policy that promotes the well being of labor around the globe? Do we have a policy that protects those who farm, mine, and manufacture our own products?
"The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.
Do we have an active program to disarm nations in volatile regions? A policy and program to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons capable of murdering millions and destroying life as we know it?
"That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear."
This is what I would like for 2006. A world in which the first option is diplomacy not "Shock and Awe." A world in which "Moral Order" in which we can face the "schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions" without resorting to FEAR tactics and fear mongering.
Proposed New Year's Resolutions
- I will be strong enough in my own faith that I can respect the views of others without demanding that they conform to mine, and I will ask that others do likewise.
- I will oppose, with every means at my disposal, any attempt to stifle free speech and expression.
- I will stand up and speak out against those economic policies that prevent the working people of this world from improving their condition, understanding that a rising tide raises all boats--and they don't all have to be yachts.
- I will demand that we recommit ourselves to preventing the proliferation of weapons, that the arms dealers become the pariahs not the potentates of our modern world.
- I will be strong enough to face down the fear of terrorist acts without compromising my liberty and the liberty of others.
and, Yes! I could afford to drop a few pounds around the midsection too!