In the early summer of 1944, I was 7 years old and on one particular night we all went up to my grandfather’s apartment to listen to President Roosevelt’s fireside chat. Pop had a very large curved-top radio. Its tuning dial was illuminated by a dull yellowish light. Its sound would fill the entire room and me, my mom, dad and sister sat with Pop and listened to the president. Although Pop was a Republican, he had a photo of FDR on the wall near the radio. Pop wasn’t a big fan of FDR and referred to him as “just another New York millionaire,” but, as he often said, “He’s our president.”As I heard FDR speak that evening I often looked at that photo.
In a strong, steady voice, FDR announced the fall of Rome. We were interested in that because my second cousin, Sam, was serving in Italy with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. I guess the hope was that, with the fall of Rome, Cousin Sam would be a bit safer.
There was something calming about it all. We were seriously at war, but our president reassured all of us that we were doing well against both the Axis powers in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific. We were winning and better times were coming. I felt good about being an American.
Some time ago, President Trump gave the commencement address to the West Point Class of 2020. I initially listened quite carefully to what he was saying, but soon realized that he was saying nothing. There was no calmness. There was no message to be cherished by the new U.S. Army 2nd lieutenants and no feeling that something good was happening or that something good would happen in the future. It wasn’t 1944 with the enormous radio. Trump didn’t display the leadership qualities of FDR but, sadly, he didn’t even know it and probably didn’t care.
After a half hour of Trump mumblings, I didn’t feel good about being an American and, needing something inspirational, I switched over to The Weather Channel for some sort of assurance that all was well. It was. The rest of the week was just fine.
Merrill Hall
Yarmouth
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