Washington, DC Apr 2010, post 2 FDR Memorial

The FDR memorial is one of the newer memorials in DC and one of the most striking ones. I was there 13 years ago, in June 1997,  just a bit more than a month after it had opened.  I traveled to DC with my mother to see my son Nadav receive the Presidential Scholar award for the male from Washington State.  It was an exciting time.

There is an inside gift shop/explanation area where we read a bit about the history of Roosevelt and saw a few items of importance.

For example, we saw the facimile of the wheel chair that FDR designed, using a kitchen chair together with the wheels of a regular wheel chair.

We also read about a planned community near DC, one of 3 established during FDR's earlier years as President and the only one that still exists today.  It sounds great!

The memorial is divided into 4 outside "rooms," which depict the era during each of Roosevelt's 4 terms as president.   Each one has a water exhibit and they all have quotes of the president.  A total of 41 are listed at http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/memorial/inscript.htm

Here are a few.  I wish the government of the US had been careful to follow these, especially in the past decade. 

                                                                                                                                                                                        "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much.  It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

"Men and nature must work hand in hand.  The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance the lives of men."

"No country however rich can afford the waste of its human resources.  Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance.  Morally it is the greatest menace to our social order." 

When I was at this memorial with my mother in 1997, I took a photo of her saluting this statue of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Mom really respected Mrs. Roosevelt.

President Roosevelt and his dog Fala.  When this statue was first unveiled, many Americans with disabilities were upset that Roosevelt's wheelchair was not seen, but that was the way that Roosevelt himself would have wanted it.  (He contracted polio at age 39 and never really walked again.)At the last "room," steps had a brief chronology of FDR's life.

Cherry trees with white blossoms here were gorgeous.

For more detail on the memorial, read about it at its official website:  http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/memorial/memorial.htm#