I have previously written about an attempt by the Worcester City Manager's Office to displace our FDR Center Museum.
I appreciate the feedback I received on DKos, Blue Mass Group and through back-channel email correspondence.
I wanted to update you on the latest issues with this important effort to preserve the legacies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Our FDR Center Museum has been offered by the Mayor of Chicopee, Massachusetts, Michael D. Bissonnette, to relocate the FDR Center Museum and its massive collection of Roosevelt and New Deal artifacts and ephemera to Chicopee. This is a wonderful offer, to say the least, that we are actively looking into.
With that bit of good news I am preparing to depart for Washington, D.C. Monday, May 14, 2007, to participate in the FDR@125 inaugural event at the Russell Senate Office Building, sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI)/FDR Library and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). I have also been invited to have lunch tomorrow afternoon with the Woman's National Democratic Club, so I am very much looking forward to that opportunity as well.
I am bringing this special event in Washington, D.C. to your attention today to illustrate, as FDR once said, that "there are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." Preserving the legacies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal for our generation, and for future generations, is moving forward on many fronts. This great event tomorrow in Washington, D.C. is a good example of going forward. This special commemoration of the 125th anniversary of FDR's birth will move from the Russell Senate Office Building to the White House Visitor Center, and can be viewed at the White House between May 22 and June 24, 2007. That is one reason why I am so excited to be part of this very special event.
Even though our own FDR Center Museum has suffered some <temporary> setbacks as of late, we are fully prepared to "move forward with strong and active faith," as FDR once wrote. As our FDR Center Museum actively prepares for its future as a foundational element, working with others, to advance the legacies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal, let us today rededicate ourselves to this great and progressive vision for humanity, and the continuing application of New Deal principles in the 21st century. Next March (2008) will mark the 75th anniversary of the New Deal (http://www.newdeal75.org), and I assure you that we of the FDR American Heritage Center Museum will be an active part of promoting the Roosevelt legacy, even though our physical location is still at present unclear.
Cordially,
Joe Plaud
President and Founder
FDR American Heritage Center Museum
http://www.fdrherita...