April 12, 2013 (Friday)
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”: FDR’s First Inaugural Address, 1933
April 12 is the anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death in 1945, less than 3 months after having been inaugurated for a fourth term as President of the United States of America. He was 63 years of age and served as president from 1933 to 1945.
I was born in 1931; Herbert Hoover was the president. His supporters had promised “two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot” if he were elected, but the terrible reality was that The Great Depression began during his administration.
I was a little over a year old when Roosevelt was elected, and he was the only president I knew until I was almost 14 years old. It was hard for me in 1945 to get used to the idea that a man named Truman was suddenly our president. I had come to believe that the words “President” and “Roosevelt” were tied together forever and that each word implied the other.
Roosevelt had an aggressive economic plan called “The New Deal,” that outlined plans to overcome the hard times of the 1930’s. No doubt they had an impact, but the event that actually took us out of the Great Depression was World War II.
Suddenly there was full employment as everyone pitched in and helped with supplies for the war effort. When the war ended in 1945, the country was no longer in a depression.
Although he was relatively young when elected in 1932, FDR aged as he worked constantly to improve our economic problems, and then worked tirelessly to lead us to victory over our enemies in time of war. As his health failed, he could see the war nearing its end and within months after his death the war was over. He definitely made his mark on history.
Devotional thought:
FDR offered “a new deal.” God offers you a better one. Here it is (from Romans 10:9-13 NIV): “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'”