The Four Freedoms

"As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone." (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

Freedom From Fear courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_Fear_(painting)#/media/File:Freedom_from_Fear.jpg.

In January of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a State of the Union Address called The Four Freedoms.  The world was at war and President Roosevelt was drafting his Lend Lease bill which would help the Allies in their fight against the Nazis.  

"Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world... the need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily -- almost exclusively -- to meeting this foreign peril..." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms)

While Roosevelt was convinced that the world needed America's help, Congress was not convinced. As the war raged on in Europe, America held an isolationist stance.  Anti-war advocates argued that Roosevelt's Four Freedom's message was just rhetoric to prop up his New Deal reforms.  

Freedom of Speech courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_(painting)#/media/File:Freedom_of_Speech.jpg.

Congress remained unconvinced until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and decimated the United States naval fleet.  The following day, President Roosevelt made his famous speech to Congress "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy". (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/11/franklin-d-roosevelts-great-arsenal-of.html)

"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.  I ask that Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."

The Four Freedoms were warmly received by the American public.  The Four Freedoms Monument, commissioned by President Roosevelt and sculpted by Walter Russell, was erected before Pearl Harbor.  It was commissioned at Madison Square Garden in 1943.  The Four Freedoms were encapsulated in the minds of Americans by Norman Rockwell series of paintings by the same name, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1943.

  

Freedom from Want courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_Want_(painting)#/media/File:Freedom_from_Want.jpg/

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

"The National Parks:  America's Best Idea" is nonetheless the story of people...who were willing to devote themselves to saving some of the precious land they loved and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy." (http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/)

http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/national-parks/maps/usa-national-park-map.jpg

The National Park Service has a presence in 49 of the 50 states (all but Delaware).  It overseas 58 national parks as well as 333 national monuments and historic sites.  "As America expanded westward, pioneers would 'discover' landscapes of such breathtaking and unusual beauty, that written descriptions of the lands were sometimes assumed by people in the East to be works of fiction.  Eventually there emerged a belief that these places should be kept untarnished by development and commerce so they could be experienced by all people." (http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/about/)

US 6th Calvary on top and beside the Fallen Monarch Tree, Yosemite, circa 1899 courtesy https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=B17BC4E5-155D-4519-3EC6B73FCE2806A8.

"The National Parks:  America's Best Idea is nonetheless the story of people...who were willing to devote themselves to saving some of the precious land they loved and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy."  John Muir, a deeply religious man, found inspiration in the mountains of Yosemite.  James Mason Hutchings, a magazine publisher who promoted Yosemite.  George Masa, a Japanese immigrant, took photographs of North Carolina and Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, which later became a national park.  Marjory Stoneman fell in love with the Florida Everglades and convinced the powers that be to make it a national park.  Adolphe Murie, a young biologist who focussed on protecting the land but also the animals that inhabited it.   And city slicker Thomas Moran, who joined the trek through the Rocky Mountains to Yellowstone River and painted the mural which later convinced Congress to make it a national park. (http://www.yellowstonepark.com/the-history-of-yellowstone-national-park/) 

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone circa 1872 courtesy https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Thomas_Moran_-_Grand_Canyon_of_the_Yellowstone.jpg.