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Revisiting FDR’s ‘Four Freedoms’

One useful way to evaluate how far we have come in the past year is to look back in history to another time of great economic, political and social upheaval. On Jan. 6, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt marked an important transition in American history with his famous “Four Freedoms” speech to Congress. While there is more than a little irony in this speech for Asian Pacific Americans — given how Japanese Americans were unjustly sent to prison camps a year later based on FDR’s Executive Order 9066 — the speech itself is still instructive over six decades later.

While historians have made much of the “Four Freedoms” part of FDR’s speech — which ties together the threads of his earlier war on poverty and the coming war on fascism — an earlier section of the speech describes in more detail the things that Americans expect from their government beyond Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom to Worship, Freedom From Want and Freedom From Fear.

“Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world,” said President Roosevelt on the eve of World War II. “For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.”

Let us revisit FDR’s 10 guideposts for a healthy political and economic democracy as we prepare to commemorate Sept. 11 in a few short weeks.

1. Equality of Opportunity. Unfortunately, according to a report on “The State of Black America” published in Black World Today, terrible inequality persists. “If America had racial equality in wealth,” the report states, “African Americans would have $760 billion more in home equity value, $200 billion more in the stock market, $120 billion more in their pension plans and $80 billion more in the bank.”

2. Jobs for those who can work. Unemployment has been hovering around 6 percent for many months (http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm), with certain sectors hit harder than others. Low-wage jobs for Asian Pacific Americans in the restaurant, tourist, garment and other industries have been hurt especially in New York’s Chinatown — which borders the World Trade Center area hit by the Sept. 11 attacks.

3. Security for those who need it. Security is in the eye of the beholder. We certainly have more searches for those boarding airplanes, and tighter controls on those entering governmental buildings. The World Cup games and Super Bowl have been without incident. But terrorist belt bomb attacks are a real threat, and the possibility of anthrax, nuclear or chemical attacks have not been ruled out by federal authorities.

4. Ending of Special Privileges. Responding to public outrage at the accounting and profit-manipulating scandals on Wall Street, Congress has passed and President Bush has signed sweeping legislation to change accounting and management practices. Given large corporate bailouts already given to the airline industry, underfunding of key enforcement agencies, the appointment of Harvey Pitt and other corporate insiders to supervise the clean-up of messes they helped to create and the $1 trillion in corporate welfare for failing phone companies being discussed by FEC chairman Michael Powell, the era of special privileges for the rich and powerful is hardly at an end.

5. Preservation of Civil Liberties. Creation of TIPS (a citizen spy organization) prolonged detention on minor charges for men of Middle East heritage, and a statement by a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that a roundup and detention of Arab Americans might be necessary are all cause for grave concern.

6. Scientific Progress. This is another category that is hard to define. We know more about the earth, the solar system and other topics than previous generations, yet AIDS in Africa and world-wide climatic problems are but two examples of scientific problems whose solutions have eluded us.

7. Rising Standard of Living. Once again, the issue is how we define the standard and who we include in the results. The events of Sept. 11 got many of us in touch with our families, our communities and the parts of life that cannot be quantified. But public and private policies toward parenting leave, day care and other issues make a more holistic lifestyle economically unattainable for many.

8. Pension Security and Unemployment Insurance. Pensions have never been more insecure because pensioners cannot even trust the financial reports that allow them to place their trust in many companies. New legislation removes some conflicts of interest and tightens some controls, but funding for enforcement and the appointment of objective governmental regulators have been lacking.

9. Adequate Medical Care. Millions of Americans lack medical insurance. The running of hospitals by HMOs who care more about profit than patient care have undermined many American health care institutions.

10. Preventing Munitions Makers From Profiting From War. General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21820-2002Jul17) and other so-called “defense” contractors have had record earnings thanks to war preparations. Perhaps they should heed FDR’s call to limit profits in the name of patriotism.

Reach Phil Tajitsu Nash at pnash@campaignadvantage.com.