I think I’m going to have to move turkey day to another day.
As a matter of fact I just said that out loud and my daughter is still yelling at me as I type. It started with “I KNEW you were going to say that!” She told the dog to bite me.
The guy in front of me at the grocery store today was buying turkey dogs.
along with the others, the four freedoms of FDR, hung in my grandmothers dinning room. Strange I’ve come full circle and am now the grandmother who will be serving up the turkey. My family get together is on Sunday because our family has so many grandparents, and in laws, due to divorce we book it when we have the chance. Today were having a vegetarian feast with jayinportland, formerly hardhatdemocrat. A bloggy thanksgiving. Quite appropriate as I am most thankful for the community here. Seems right and I know my FDR loving grandmother would be thankful that the net is keeping alive the seeds she sowed in her dining room and fireside chats. Sad that we have come full circle and once again must define freedom from want as a universal right.
Granted, Rockwell’s painting portrays a multi-generational Caucasian family during a Thanksgiving feast — an image that may seem quaint by today’s standards.
To be fair, I think some consideration of the context is in order.
On January 6, 1941, during his annual message to Congress, eleven months and a day prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated the following during his annual message to Congress:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want-which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear-which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
Passing through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., is truly a memorable and affecting experience. There are some twenty inscriptions on the granite walls of the memorial, immortalizing the words of one of our greatest presidents. What differentiates him from most others, is that he actually did his best to help make these aspirations a reality. At the exit to this wonderful memorial, the last inscription one sees is that of the Four Freedoms.
The Four Freedoms are featured in its own special gallery at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and, in this writer’s humble opinion, the actual original oil paintings depicting the Four Freedoms are far more striking when viewed in person.
Although the government went to considerable effort to convey the substance of Roosevelt’s message to the American populace, it was discovered that only one-third of our citizens were familiar with the Four Freedoms and only one in fifty could enumerate all four of them. In 1942, when he began work on this series, Norman Rockwell was residing with his family in Arlington, Vermont, using neighbors as models for these paintings. This was eleven years before he moved his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is probably most closely associated with his life.
Norman Rockwell determined that by creating visual images graphically depicting the Four Freedoms of which FDR spoke, this might serve to increase the American populace’s awareness of what it was they were working, fighting and dying to protect. When all was said and done, some four million copies of these four images were distributed throughout the country.
The first painting in the group is entitled Freedom of Speech and Expression:
The second painting is entitled Freedom of Worship:
The third painting is the one that features the Thanksgiving scene at the beginning of this diary, and is entitled Freedom from Want:
And the fourth painting is entitled Freedom from Fear:
As the final hour heralds the conclusion of yet another annual Thanksgiving Day, we can rightly mourn how much has been lost from the legacy bequeathed to us by preceding generations. But we can also be thankful for that precious, but imperfect, gift that was given to us, and rededicate ourselves to preserving (and improving) those remaining freedoms for future generations to enjoy.
The photo featured at the beginning of another of budydharma’s diaries today, entitled Thank You Father, Thank You Mother is also quite stunning, and reminds us of, particularly in light of the meetings between world leaders in Copenhagen, the beauty and fragility of the planet we call our home. Through carelessness and reckless disregard, much of that which makes it so special can be ruined, within our lifetimes, and for many lifetimes yet to come.
Similarly, the Four Freedoms of which Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke are also quite precious and fragile,and, though neglect and disregard, can be lost. Reasonable persons could credibly argue that each of these four freedoms has been and continues to be under unrelenting assault by those who might hope to gain power, influence and profit by its continuing demise.
There is much additional, fascinating information about the FDR Memorial, Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, and Rockwell’s life to be found on various websites, including wikipedia.
May today be merely one of 365 days per year when we give thanks for that which providence, whatever we may conceive that to be, has so generously bestowed upon us.
limited himself exclusively to paintings depicting an idealized portrayal of white America, please consider the following:
Rockwell spent nearly five months completing the Golden Rule , which appeared in the April 1, 1961 edition of the Saturday Evening Post:
And, also for your consideration, here is Rockwell’s portrayal of an eight-year-old African-American girl on her way to school, under less than ideal circumstances. The little girl was Ruby Nell Bridges, the first black student to attend a white school in New Orleans, in 1960. The story associated with this painting can be found here.
Unlike the “art” preferred by some of Rockwell’s most severe critics, his work was intended to convey a message to a broad audience, in a manner that might cause its viewer to consider important matters of the day in a new and different way. On that score, I would argue that Rockwell was a resounding success.
school was illustration, We studied him along with other American masters of this art form. The Satuurday Evening Post was his realm. I think his peak was in the forties. My favorite was a piece called The Party line or The Gossip..
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… and will be consumed shortly by the Palin 2009 Book Tour line placeholders.
the inlaws this go round, the couple who is big on hunting…. the doctor and her insurance businessman entrepreneur husband.
isnt this sweet?
I think I’m going to have to move turkey day to another day.
As a matter of fact I just said that out loud and my daughter is still yelling at me as I type. It started with “I KNEW you were going to say that!” She told the dog to bite me.
The guy in front of me at the grocery store today was buying turkey dogs.
politically incorrect.
along with the others, the four freedoms of FDR, hung in my grandmothers dinning room. Strange I’ve come full circle and am now the grandmother who will be serving up the turkey. My family get together is on Sunday because our family has so many grandparents, and in laws, due to divorce we book it when we have the chance. Today were having a vegetarian feast with jayinportland, formerly hardhatdemocrat. A bloggy thanksgiving. Quite appropriate as I am most thankful for the community here. Seems right and I know my FDR loving grandmother would be thankful that the net is keeping alive the seeds she sowed in her dining room and fireside chats. Sad that we have come full circle and once again must define freedom from want as a universal right.
Granted, Rockwell’s painting portrays a multi-generational Caucasian family during a Thanksgiving feast — an image that may seem quaint by today’s standards.
To be fair, I think some consideration of the context is in order.
On January 6, 1941, during his annual message to Congress, eleven months and a day prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated the following during his annual message to Congress:
Passing through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., is truly a memorable and affecting experience. There are some twenty inscriptions on the granite walls of the memorial, immortalizing the words of one of our greatest presidents. What differentiates him from most others, is that he actually did his best to help make these aspirations a reality. At the exit to this wonderful memorial, the last inscription one sees is that of the Four Freedoms.
The Four Freedoms are featured in its own special gallery at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and, in this writer’s humble opinion, the actual original oil paintings depicting the Four Freedoms are far more striking when viewed in person.
Although the government went to considerable effort to convey the substance of Roosevelt’s message to the American populace, it was discovered that only one-third of our citizens were familiar with the Four Freedoms and only one in fifty could enumerate all four of them. In 1942, when he began work on this series, Norman Rockwell was residing with his family in Arlington, Vermont, using neighbors as models for these paintings. This was eleven years before he moved his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is probably most closely associated with his life.
Norman Rockwell determined that by creating visual images graphically depicting the Four Freedoms of which FDR spoke, this might serve to increase the American populace’s awareness of what it was they were working, fighting and dying to protect. When all was said and done, some four million copies of these four images were distributed throughout the country.
The first painting in the group is entitled Freedom of Speech and Expression:
The second painting is entitled Freedom of Worship:
The third painting is the one that features the Thanksgiving scene at the beginning of this diary, and is entitled Freedom from Want:
And the fourth painting is entitled Freedom from Fear:
As the final hour heralds the conclusion of yet another annual Thanksgiving Day, we can rightly mourn how much has been lost from the legacy bequeathed to us by preceding generations. But we can also be thankful for that precious, but imperfect, gift that was given to us, and rededicate ourselves to preserving (and improving) those remaining freedoms for future generations to enjoy.
The photo featured at the beginning of another of budydharma’s diaries today, entitled Thank You Father, Thank You Mother is also quite stunning, and reminds us of, particularly in light of the meetings between world leaders in Copenhagen, the beauty and fragility of the planet we call our home. Through carelessness and reckless disregard, much of that which makes it so special can be ruined, within our lifetimes, and for many lifetimes yet to come.
Similarly, the Four Freedoms of which Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke are also quite precious and fragile,and, though neglect and disregard, can be lost. Reasonable persons could credibly argue that each of these four freedoms has been and continues to be under unrelenting assault by those who might hope to gain power, influence and profit by its continuing demise.
There is much additional, fascinating information about the FDR Memorial, Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, and Rockwell’s life to be found on various websites, including wikipedia.
May today be merely one of 365 days per year when we give thanks for that which providence, whatever we may conceive that to be, has so generously bestowed upon us.
limited himself exclusively to paintings depicting an idealized portrayal of white America, please consider the following:
Rockwell spent nearly five months completing the Golden Rule , which appeared in the April 1, 1961 edition of the Saturday Evening Post:
And, also for your consideration, here is Rockwell’s portrayal of an eight-year-old African-American girl on her way to school, under less than ideal circumstances. The little girl was Ruby Nell Bridges, the first black student to attend a white school in New Orleans, in 1960. The story associated with this painting can be found here.
Unlike the “art” preferred by some of Rockwell’s most severe critics, his work was intended to convey a message to a broad audience, in a manner that might cause its viewer to consider important matters of the day in a new and different way. On that score, I would argue that Rockwell was a resounding success.
school was illustration, We studied him along with other American masters of this art form. The Satuurday Evening Post was his realm. I think his peak was in the forties. My favorite was a piece called The Party line or The Gossip..
http://frames-and-things.ecrat…