FDR’s four freedoms
To the Editor:

Greybeards may recall that sixty-six years ago next month, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his State of the Union address in which he described his “Four Freedoms” which, he claimed, applied everywhere in the world. FDR was in good company when he listed (1) “freedom of speech” and (2) “freedom of religion.” These, of course, are enshrined in the beginning of our Bill of Rights, and as every schoolchild knows, were key elements in the founding of this nation. But then FDR moved on to a couple of ideological distortions by offering us the woolly abstractions of (3) “freedom from want” and (4) “freedom from fear.”

Our Founding Fathers understood that freedom of speech and freedom of religion were in included in the “unalienable rights” given to us by our Creator; and contrary to FDR’s notion, they also understood that our natural rights did not include freedom from want and freedom from fear. The idea that everyone should be free from want is what has led to our behemoth welfare state and oppressive tax burden, and the notion that everyone should be free from fear is what has led to our having half a million US troops stationed in about 150 countries and territories all over the globe.

It was a mistake to buy into FDR’s propaganda 66 years ago, and it’s a worse mistake to buy into it today. We have a long list of freedoms, but freedom from want and freedom from fear are not on the list. Utopia is not one of the options.

Cordially, Chuck Esposito

Suches, Ga.