A color print of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt hangs on the wall where I can see it from my bed.
It is there to remind me of all that President Roosevelt, our 33rd President, accomplished while serving serving twelve years as President of the United States beginning in 1933 during a severe economic depression and ending when he died in office in 1945.
I need to be reminded that he did all of this while dealing with the painful and crippling results of polio (or "infantile paralysis" as it was then known).
FDR was born on January 30, 1882 and died during his fourth term as President on April 12, 1945 at the age of 63.
Some of FDR's views and associations were certainly troublesome and this has been well-documented elsewhere.
But his accomplishments included:
-- Bringing us out of the Great Depression with the "New Deal" and other innovative federal programs,
-- Leading us (and the free world) through a World War on two fronts,
-- Enunciating and implementing programs to support the "Four Freedoms" (Speech, Hunger, Want and Fear),
-- Initiating the "March of Dimes" to heighten awareness and support of research to end Polio (or Infantile Paralysis as it was known in those days).
The reason he is included in this blog is that he did all of this, as noted, while dealing with the painful and crippling results of this dread disease.
