Right before he uttered those famous words, ” . . . the only thing we have to fear is fear itself . . . ,” at the start of his first presidential inaugural speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured Depression-weary fellow citizens, “This great nation will endure as it has endured . . . “
Maybe it was easier in 1933 for Americans to grasp and hold onto those words than it is in 2022. The United States is not in an economic depression, or even a recession — yet.
But inflation has us in its clutches and rising prices are just the latest storm battering our lives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s life-altering impact and the rants of a former president who didn’t think he lost the election.
For the first time in a long time, I didn’t fill my gas tank last week. I let go of the nozzle handle when the pump pinged on $30.
Last Friday, the federal government reported that consumer prices rose 8.6 percent between May, 2021 and this May — the highest year-over-year increase since 1981.
In 2016, Americans abandoned the belief that the people they elect to be president need prior service in public office and picked Donald Trump. He quickly proved himself to be a tinhorn Roman emperor, doling out bread and circuses with checks mailed to Americans and tweets designed to distract and infuriate.
He alternately wooed and threatened North Korea’s dictator and sidled up to Vladimir Putin. In 2020, voters — to quote my boss — “put an adult in the room” and elected Joe Biden.
Biden has turned out to be a great political cheerleader, but not much of a leader. He’s like a nice grandfather who dispenses sage advice and hands out $20 bills before taking a nap. With Putin rattling the nuclear saber, Biden can’t even send America’s military overseas to do what it does best: kick a bad guy’s ass.
Trump’s acolytes and their liberal enemies will fight it out in the midterms this fall without engaging in honest debate about a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and our inability to keep high-powered rifles away from lunatics.
I don’t think Trump or Biden will run in 2024, and Americans will finally have to stop ordering off the political menu and cook their own proverbial meal when it comes to finding the next president.
I think the search should start with all of us re-reading the Founding Fathers’ writings. OK, everyone says they were bunch of white guys who owned slaves. But with the help of women (Abigail Adams) and people of color (do schools still teach about Crispus Attucks?), they faced down Europe’s most powerful army.
My wife hangs a copy of the Declaration of Independence on our porch every summer, and I disciplined myself to read a line a day last year. It was easy to imagine British leaders reading the petulant words written in a stuffy, overheated Philadelphia meeting room, and roaring with laughter.
I think FDR had the Founding Fathers in mind when he wrote his inaugural address. He understood that the words written by 18th century men still provided guidance and perspective, even comfort, to their 20th century descendants.
By declaring the nation will endure, Roosevelt knew the Founding Fathers built our country on solid bedrock. It is that endurance that explains why “. . . the only thing we have to fear is fear itself . . . ”
It’s time for us to draw on our reserves of endurance to get through tough times and shun the temptation to allow fear to magnify our privations.
