72 years ago today, Franklin Roosevelt delivered a Flag Day radio address, one of my favorite speeches. Delivered just over half-a-year after Pearl Harbor, its most eloquent segment was a poem written for the occasion by Stephen Vincent Benét. The only audio I’ve ever heard, is a segment used at the end of the WWII in HD documentary. You can find a transcript of the speech here. My favorite bits:
The four freedoms of common humanity are as much elements of man’s needs as air and sunlight, bread and salt. Deprive him of all these freedoms and he dies-deprive him of a part of them and a part of him withers. Give them to him in full and abundant measure and he will cross the threshold of a new age, the greatest age of man. These freedoms are the rights of men of every creed and every race, wherever they live. This is their heritage, long withheld….
And we know that there are other millions who in their silent captivity share our belief. We ask the German people, still dominated by their Nazi whip-masters, whether they would rather have the mechanized hell of Hitler’s New Order or; in place of that; freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and from fear. We ask the Japanese people, trampled by their savage lords of slaughter, whether they would rather continue slavery and blood or, in place of them; freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and from fear. We ask the brave, unconquered people of the nations the Axis invaders have dishonored and despoiled whether they would rather yield to conquerors or; have freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and from fear….
Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and nations. Grant us faith and understanding to cherish all those who fight for freedom as if they were our brothers. Grant us brotherhood in hope and union, not only for the space of this bitter war, but for the days to come which shall and must unite all the children of Earth. Our Earth is but a small star in the great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children and our children’s children may be proud of the name of man.
The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man’s spirit, that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honor for our dead who died in the faith, honor for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed. And grant us the skill and the valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong.
Yet most of all grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years;a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of Earth; grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace; that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march, toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen.
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