FDR's Memorial Quotes

Kay and I have taken a few days to visit some sights, as in buildings, monuments and museums.  Without exception visiting our Nation’s White House and Capitol buildings are a must for anyone who plans to visit our Nation’s Capital.  It is difficult to put into words to describe the Nation’s, National Cathedral; but to stand before the twin towers and the main entrance with the sculpture of the creation is breath taking and humbling. 

For me as a musician and fellow Episcopalian, to have the opportunity to sing in this Gothic style building with its massive Nave and high celling was a once in a lifetime chance and I wasn't going to let this one go by or get away from me.

We visited the Women’s Suffragette Museum describing the struggles of all women to gain the right to vote by passing the 19th Amendment.  It was most enlightening to see a map showing the states that ratified women’s right to vote, which only highlighted the failure of the Southern states to accept women’s constitutional rights as they continued to discriminate against the former slaves; who were now under the landowners boot, existing as sharecroppers. This struggle to organize and demonstrate with marches under threat of arrest did not deter these women.  Women who came together under one flag of unity; from all walks of life; democrat and republican, rich, poor, white, black, mothers and those working in the factories.

Of all the monuments and museums that we could have visited; as the the many different collections of the Smithsonian I popped in and took a few pictures in the Aviation Museum.  But it was only after we had spend a few hours in the American Indian building; which is designed to represent the mountains in Monument Valley.  Our understanding of the horrible conditions that was forced upon them was filled in from our visits to other American Indian Museums in Oklahoma and Texas. The story of being forced to leave their Ancestral homes and lands; herded and corralled to areas the leaders in Washington didn’t think was valuable.  Until oil was discovered on their lands.

These were some of the quote that are carved in the walls of the FDR Memorial depicting his 4 terms of office; quotes that all of our elected official should put to memory once again.  These words are never truer than in today's world of chaos among our government officials.  People who can't remember for who they are representing.

"Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out  of balance also the lives of men."  [from a Message to Congress on the Use of Our Natural Resources, Washington, D.C., January 24, 1935.] "In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice,  the path of faith, the path of hope and the path of love toward our fellow men."  [from a campaign address, Detroit, Michigan, October 2, 1932.] "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those of those who have much; it is  whether we provide enough for those who have too little."