My father belonged to that generation of Americans which volunteered for the armed forces shortly after asking the question, "Where the $&# is Pearl Harbor?" In his case, I’m pretty sure that’s a direct quote.
He joined the Navy and wound up island-hopping in the Pacific. He didn’t talk a whole lot about his war days. He was wounded more than once, but took peculiar pride in pointing out that he was always hit from behind. I think he took this to be proof of his intelligence.
The scar he talked about the most, however, was the one on his uniform. He claimed that he made rank and got busted so many times that there were visible scars where his stripes used to be. His main offense while on shore leave consisted of acting like a sailor on shore leave.
I was never sure whether to take him literally about his war stories or anything else, even the time of day, for he often spoke in parables like sages, poets and strange people throughout the ages. But literalism usually misses the point anyway. He was there.
The passing of two very different but related anniversaries in December made me think of his generation, which came of age in a time of depression and war and fought literally as well as figuratively to make the country and the world a better place. The first anniversary of course was that of Pearl Harbor. The second, three days later, celebrates international human rights.
Ordinarily, one wouldn’t expect a connection between those two anniversaries, but those were very different times when our country was fighting a very different war under a very different president. In the midst of a global war against fascism and imperialism, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was trying to lay the foundation for the United Nations and a global system based on the four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. And he was committed, even in wartime, to promoting "a second Bill of Rights" for the American people.
In his January 1944 address to Congress, he said,
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.
In today’s climate, we’ve sunk so low that it’s hard to imagine a president even talking like that, much less trying to actually make it happen. To quote Shakespeare, "O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there."
President Roosevelt didn’t live to see either the final victory in that war or the realization of his other goals, but his vast legacy has made this county more just, humane and democratic. Included in that legacy is Social Security, aid to poor families with children, the right of workers to organize and join unions, wage-and-hour laws, overtime protections, and the revolutionary G.I. Bill of Rights for veterans which helped create the now-endangered great American middle class.
He didn’t do it by himself, either. Millions of Americans made it happen, prodding the president along as needed. Some, like my father and hundreds of thousands of others, fought for it overseas. Others did so at home, as workers, trade unionists, sharecroppers, farmers, migrant laborers, parents, minorities and voters improved the time.
This legacy has positively affected millions of Americans, although it is under sustained attack from the highest levels of government today.
In my father’s case, FDR’s system really worked. Although he never took full advantage of G.I. education and housing benefits, he was saved from abject poverty when he became disabled, thanks to the Social Security system. In fact, he called it "sociable security," since it was pretty friendly to him. He was also able to get medical treatment from the Veteran’s Administration when he needed it. That’s the way it should be.
Roosevelt’s unfinished legacy is a challenge to us today. He warned that if the nation were to give up the struggle for justice for all people, "it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of fascism here at home."
The vision of one nation under greed wasn’t good enough for that commander in chief. Instead, Roosevelt said that "Each and every one of us has a solemn obligation under God to serve this nation in its most critical hour — to keep this nation great — to make this nation greater in a better world."
For the sake of the future, I hope this generation of Americans rises above its current leadership to preserve and extend the gains that so many generations fought so hard, and in so many ways, to make.
Note: For more of the same, with gratuitous animal pictures, check out The Goat Rope blog at http://www.goatrope.blogspot.com.