I have visited Washington, DC several times over the years but I must admit I had never walked around the Tidal Basin in its entirety and visited the Memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This tribute to FDR and his four terms as a US President is quite unusual. A strikingly different approach was taken in its design when compared to the somewhat more traditional (and arguably more photogenic) edifices built as homages to Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.
FDR was an interesting president, hiding his disability at a time when it would have been considered weak to be anything less that an idealized “true man.” He was far from perfect, as the lack of dealing with racial equality on his watch attests, but he did make significant changes to the American way at a time of great turmoil and hardship, leading the nation through both the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II.
The memorial is arranged to explore each of his four terms in office and, among the walls and sculptures contains several pieces of text carved into the marble. One of these quotes struck a chord with me for it’s prescience, and in my opinion, should also be reproduced over the doorway of the Oval Office so that every occupant, of every political persuasion, can contemplate it when seated at their desk.
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