NOTE: This message was originally in conference "INTERNET - E-MAIL AREA"
      and was copied here by Tom Mckeever.
From: Robert Mauro 
To: Multiple recipients of list POLIO 
Date:         Mon, 27 May 1996 08:12:02 -0400
Subject:      FDR MEMORIAL ARTICLE
 
Curtis Roosevelt, a relative of FDR, does not want FDR shown in a
wheelchair.  He is the FDR family member on the board.  There will be
one, maybe two, photos of FDR in a wheelchair at entrance of monument.  U
can write to the commettee in Washington, DC.  Here's an article I wrote
on this subject:
 
                       REMEMBERING FDR IN STONE
                            By Robert Mauro
 
   In Washington, DC, the memory of great Presidents has been
memorialized.  Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and now Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.  FDR will finally have his own 54-million-dollar memorial on
7.5 acres of land beneath the cheery blossoms and near the Tidal Basin
in our nation's capital.  It will take two years to build.  Completion
is set for 1997.  But something will be missing.  FDR's disability.
   According to the wishes of his descendants and FDR himself, the FDR
Memorial Commission, established in 1955 by Congress, will not show
Roosevelt as a person with a disability.  Senators Daniel Inouye and
Mark Hatfield, who co-chair the bi-partisan congressional commission to
erect the memorial, have said to me in long letters that FDR never
referred to his disability in public, nor did anyone else ever mention
it in his presence.  Both senators have told me Roosevelt's disability
was to the thirty-second president a "private matter."  Nevertheless,
the memorial commission and Roosevelt's living descendants all agree
that they must and do respect the feelings of the many Americans with
disabilities who have written or spoken to them urging that FDR be
shown in or with his wheelchair.  One promise the commission does make
is that FDR will not be shown standing alone unaided.  However, the
Roosevelt family and the commission have respectfully disagreed with
disabled activists and citizens who would like to see Roosevelt with
his wheelchair.
   FDR's oldest living grandson, Curtis Roosevelt, has said that never
was anyone, including himself, allowed to refer to his grandfather's
polio.  David B. Roosevelt, who sits on the memorial commission,
concurs.  In fact, there are over 125,000 photos of FDR in the FDR
Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY, but only 1 of those photos shows
Roosevelt in his wheelchair.  There is a possibility that that one rare
photo might be displayed in the entry building of the FDR Memorial.
   Although the memorial will have a number of sculptures of FDR, none
will show him in his famous personally-designed wheelchair.  Instead,
he will be shown, for example, sitting behind a desk delivering a
fireside chat, and there will be one of him in his famous cape, sitting
in a chair beside his dog Fala.  The only actual acknowledgement of
FDR's disability will be carved in a granite time line.  It will state:
1921, STRICKEN WITH POLIOMYELITIS - HE NEVER AGAIN WALKED UNAIDED.
   Some of us with disabilities, especially those of us with polio,
have hoped that more emphasis would be placed on Roosevelt's
disability.  We had hoped that if the average citizen could see FDR as
he really was, a man first, but a man who just happened to have a
disability, that countless visitors to this great memorial would come
away thinking that even men or women with disabilities could accomplish
great things.  Of course, there is another side to this view: not every
man or woman with a disability had FDR's wealth, family connections
(President Teddy Roosevelt), and non-disabled head start.  In ways,
perhaps FDR knew this.  He also knew that in his day the average
citizen might not accept a man in the White House who sat in a
wheelchair and who needed help dressing.  So he hid his disability,
never letting the press photograph him being carried from his car to
his wheelchair.  And when one new press photographer photographed FDR
being carried, the veteran press boys and secret service grabbed that
film.  This is all reported in Hugh Gregory Gallagher's excellent book
FDR'S SPLENDID DECEPTION.
   Franklin D. Roosevelt was a man just like most men.  He had his
insecurities, his vanities, and his fears.  His greatest fear was being
trapped by fire.  He worked hard, teaching himself how to crawl from a
room in an emergency.  His sons promised never to leave him alone.
Someone would always be with him.  FDR hated what he felt was the loss
of the privacy and independence he had enjoyed before his disability.
Of course, today many of us who are disabled do enjoy privacy and
independence.
   FDR was ashamed of his "withered legs," but only around nondisabled
Americans.  At Warm Springs, where the children with polio called him
Doc, Roosevelt often swam with these disabled kids.  At picnic with
them, the President wore his braces outside his pants.  He felt free,
totally accepted, and just like anyone else.
   The cold-hearted Stalin admired Roosevelt for his fairness and
strength of character.  Churchill said he felt a great feeling of
relief when he had confided to FDR about his fears of German aggression
on the brink of World War Two.  Calling the President at 3 a.m. London
time, Churchill could not go to sleep until he had talked to Roosevelt.
It is still unknown exactly what Roosevelt told Churchill, but whatever
it was, Churchill came away assured he would not be alone in his fight
with Hitler.  Churchill said of FDR, "He is the greatest man I have
ever known."
   In the 1940 presidential race, a reporter asked Eleanor Roosevelt if
FDR's disability had affected his mind.  Yes, she said.  It had made
him more sensitive to the needs of others.  In her book NO ORDINARY
TIME, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin tells how FDR always "acted
upbeat, so as not to disappoint the expectations of everyone around
him."  How sad that Roosevelt, who was often depressed, had to put on a
happy face to his public.  And in ways, so has his memorial.
   FDR died on April 12, 1945, from a sudden a cerebral hemorrhage.
His last words were, "I have a tremendous pain in the back of my head."
However, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin's book NO ORDINARY TIME,
FDR's daughter, Anna, moved into the White House in mid-1944, to work
with her father and be with him while Eleanor was out on her many
trips.  Anna began to notice her father looked very ill as she worked
close to him that year.  He was pale, had frequent headaches, trouble
breathing, and couldn't sleep well at night.  Eleanor attributed this
to stress.  She denied there was anything physically wrong with FDR.
But Anna wanted her father examined by experts.  He was.  It was found
that his blood was poorly oxygenated.  His lips and nail beds were
blue, and he was frequently fatigued during the day, occasionally
nodding off.  One doctor said he had congestive heart failure.  Other
specialist disagreed.  Could this have been Post Polio Syndrome?  No
one around FDR, but Anna, would admit to Franklin's illness.  Most
attributed his fatigue and exhaustion to his hard work.  But had this
been PPS?  Had his heart begun to fail because of his poor oxygenation?
It sure looks like all the symptoms to me.
   Now Franklin Delano Roosevelt is now going to be memorialized for
the ages.  His great memorial will sit near those of Jefferson,
Lincoln, and Washington.  If you would like to express your opinion on
the FDR Memorial, I urge you to write to U. S. Senators Mark O.
Hatfield and Daniel K. Inouye at the FDR Memorial Commission, 825-A
Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510.  Or call 202-228-
2491.  You can FAX the Commission at 202-228-1010.  Urge both Senators
to be certain that that one rare photo of FDR in his wheelchair is
displayed proudly and prominently in his memorial.  Then everyone can
feel upbeat and uplifted when they visit this long-awaited memorial,
everyone including this country's 49 million Americans with
disabilities.
 
 
                        Bob, Mauro@Chelsea.Ios.Com
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