Thursday, December 6

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My picture is one that gets me every time. It's the Freedom of Speech painting by Norman Rockwell. He painted a series of four paintings depicting American Freedoms; "The Freedom of Speech", "The Freedom of Worship", "The Freedom from Want", and "The Freedom from Fear". Apparently Rockwell was so determined to make these paintings that he spent 6 months with less than optimal sleep, and lost 15 lbs in the process. Talk about determination.

These four freedoms are based on a speech given by Franklin D. Roosevelt with the title of the same name. Every responsible citizen should "Google(TM)" the speech, but I will reproduce the important part here:

In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression-- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way; everywhere in the world.

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.

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.
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.


- Franklin Delano Roosevelt,excerpted from the Annual Message to the Congress,January 6, 1941

I may not agree with the whole anti-armament stance, but I do agree that no country should act in a form of aggression against a neighbor. (Keep in mind FDR was talking about the invasion of Poland and France by Germany and of China by Japan during World War II. He was not talking about honorable defensive strikes, which is what our involvement in the war was.)

In light of the current administration we all should at the very least read up on our freedoms, and at least critically think about what sacrifices we are collectively making as a country. Every time we divert responsibility from ourselves to our government we lose freedoms. We just need to make sure it's worth it.

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