In commemoration of City Weekly's 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.
Title: 1,004 Points of Light
Author: Ron Yengich
Date: Feb. 5, 1991
"Statesmanship and vision, my friends, require relief to all at the same time."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The primary concern of any government dominated by the humane ideals of democracy is the simple principle that in a land of vast resources no one should be permitted to starve."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
George Bush is full of noblesse oblige these days. Last week, after a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress that was 20 parts sunshine patriotism, 40 parts unabashed flag waving, and 40 parts hollow hope, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of FDR's Four Freedoms speech with an equal dosage of American roses.
Both Roosevelt and Bush came from the fat-cat side of the tracks. FDR had a rich, overbearing mother-figure who kept him in dresses in the family palace in upstate New York until he was three and then followed after him, first to prep school, and then to law school in the League where all is Ivy and the servants say "please," and "thank you." Roosevelt revolted from mater's overbearing grasp, marrying his cousin, a woman short on looks, heavy on cerebrum, who wore sensible shoes. For added measure he became a Democrat, bolting Uncle Teddy's party and thus causing people like George Bush's father, the U.S. Senator from Maine, to spit up their cognac at the mention of his initials. FDR cared about the little people.
George Bush, on the other hand, stayed at home and dreamed of the day he could make the capital gains tax safe for the country clubbers. But, taking a cue from the somnambulate one who preceded him in the Lincoln Bedroom at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he quotes FDR when he wants to show that he is one of the gang.
The Four Freedoms, for the uninitiated, are the standards Roosevelt proclaimed for his new world order on January 6, 1941:
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 worldwide 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—everywhere in the world.
Here are my suggestions to our president:
Freedom of Speech and Expression
The Four Freedoms could have real meaning at home in a country that castigates those who oppose the Persian Gulf war as un-American and who cough the old "America, Love it or Leave It" routine. One can only wonder about the worth of Freedom of Speech and Assembly if these democratic talismans are only available in the lazy, Indian summer days when there is no war, and thus, no reason to take to the streets.
Freedom of Worship
In a country that calls itself Christian but can't read beyond the Book of Revelation, through Armageddon, to the noble sentiments of the Sermon on the Mount, we can only wonder about our Islamic brothers and sisters who aren't only misunderstood, but treated as subhuman and hunted by our FBI for being, of all things, Arab-Americans.
Freedom from Want
Dock your cigarette boat and stroll through any city in this country with the homeless and dispossessed, the AIDS sufferers and new jobless who have fallen victim to the "temporary recession." Tell me if there is adequate medical care for this country's aged and infirm. What do you tell a bag lady with no teeth and no food?
Freedom from Fear
Stand on the balcony on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, squint hard, and try to imagine a hopeless black child ducking bullets from semiautomatic weapons that are protected by the NRA and the Republican Party. Or, how about a child in the Middle East whose government—you pick it, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel—has been supplied with the technology for destruction by the same country whose president proclaims Four Freedoms Day.
There are no smart bombs to eradicate the war on poverty. And they don't strike up the band to a Sousa tune while marching to save the world's children from starvation. It's so much easier to salve the world's troubles with laser-guided this and satellite that. But, then, when this war is over we'll see if George Bush is full of noblesse oblige—or something else.
