FDR always had
plenty of money. However, late in his childhood he had polio.
For the rest of his life he was confined to a wheelchair for the
most part. Until he had an iron grip on the White House he
managed to hide it from most people. However, this memorial made
no secret of the fact. It started with a picture of FDR in a
wheelchair and this plaque.
I was surprised to see that "think
globally, act locally" idea in this context. It was a nice
surprise, my favorite kind.
By "these days of difficulty" he was
referring to the great depression. My grand-father struggled
through those days. My father sort of remembered those days, but
this writer wasn't born until much later.
FDR was our only President who was
elected four times. In fact, he was the only one that got elected
more than twice. George Washington gave up the seat after eight
years because he felt that was a much time as anyone should have
the seat. That was the precedent that everybody honored until FDR
came along. More recently they have added an amendment to the
Constitution that makes two terms per President the max.
The TVA started out as a project to
bring hydro power to the area. It has since evolved into much more
than that.
Looks like we have regressed a lot
since the country took those words as marching orders. Too bad,
but that's what happens when the 1% figure out how to buy the
government they want.
I don't know those people or
anything like that. They are just other tourists that happened to
be there. I got tired of waiting for them to get out of the shot.
Then I realized they give a good idea of the scale of the place.
It's at least a hundred yards long, much bigger than most of the
monuments in DC. Wandering through it feels a lot like doing a
maze. It's easy to miss something, and I probably did.
Lots of "water flowing like
justice", as I like to call the pink noise coming off the water
features.
She continued to have an effect on
America even after her husband died.