Reflection - From DC Monuments to Barbara Bush, One Word: Freedom

I was having presidential thoughts (not aspirations) this past month. To start, I visited D.C. with my family and went to the FDR Memorial for the first time. There, I was reminded of FDR’s eloquence during two periods that tested the soul of America in the 20th Century. I mean, of course, the Great Depression and the Second World War.

The Four Freedoms from his 1941 State of the Union address (freedom of speech and worship, and freedom from want and fear), terms from the New Deal, wartime statecraft, and much more are depicted on the walls of the seven acre memorial to the only U.S. president elected four times. I got so enthused by the eloquence of the excerpts of his speeches that I found myself reciting them aloud. (There were few people around to think me odd, aside from my family, who know I’m odd.) I also admired the section devoted to Eleanor Roosevelt as well as the fact that FDR was shown in his wheelchair as a result of mid-life polio, which did not hold back this giant.

On the way around the beautiful Tidal Basin among fading cherry blossoms, I also witnessed the MLK Memorial for the first time. The giant carved relief of King, assassinated 50 years ago April 6th, is seen as having emerged from the mountain of granite behind him with his words "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" engraved thereon. I am pretty literal, but even I got that symbolism. More than a dozen of King’s matchless expressions of hope for America are inscribed around the arc of this four-acre site.

I counted only two paddleboats in the Basin that day as we completed our loop at the pantheonic Jefferson Memorial, which my son, who works in D.C., calls “TJ”. Here, my not quite-two-year old grandson insisted on walking himself up – and down – all the steps of the memorial while holding my hand. I read the words, “God who gave us life gave us liberty,” which make up the opening lines of the impressive song by composer Randall Thompson being sung by my chorus June 3rd. 

All three memorials and the section on Mrs. Roosevelt bespoke a common theme in my two-hour experience: Freedom, equality, and opportunity. These are the ideals that drive us and, hopefully, define us as Americans. These ideals are never dead, never irrelevant to all our public and private discourse and decisions. While other monuments honor many who fought to protect our freedom, it made me glad that we celebrate the lives of those who declared the terms of freedom, who promoted freedom, however imperfectly, and whose words still inspire us today to work for freedom. That my grandson was inspired to exercise his freedom to walk parts of the two-mile loop was pretty cool too. 

Now, the other presidential moment: I was thinking about the passing of Barbara Bush, famous in her own right, the wife of one president and mother of another. Like many world-wide, I was an admirer. Her frankness and her patriotism were front and center. I even admired her in death because of her ability to say "enough" to treatment, as reported in the Wall Street Journal April 15. “Mrs. Bush… after consulting with her family and doctors, [has] decided to not seek additional medical treatment and instead will focus on ‘comfort care.’” This was personal to her, but it showed brave leadership by example as well, as millions of families looked on facing their own end-of-life decisions.

Deciding to let go, and allow yourself to die, is not something most of us get to do a dry run on, to practice. We don’t know how hard, or possibly how easy, or how anything about it will be, until it is our turn. But we can make our point of view known. In this, too, we have freedom.