Tag: Eleanor Roosevelt

From trick or treat to jab or swab—UNICEF at 75

Adele Fasick3 Comments

If you grew up during the last half of the 20th century, you probably remember  Halloween as being about more than pumpkins and parties. Thousands of children celebrated the holiday by going out to “trick or treat for UNICEF”. These days we no longer see children clutching those small boxes to collect nickels and dimes to help children around the world. UNICEF however, continues to work for children.

Halloween box

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. (UNICEF) is 75 years old this year. It was started under the auspices of the United Nations in 1946 at the end of World War II. One of its strongest proponents was Eleanor Roosevelt, who was then serving as the Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In 1948, together with Alan S. Watt, an Australian Representative, she submitted a report to the UN outlining the goals and activities of UNICEF up until that time and set out future plans for the organization.

Eleanor Roosevelt

UNICEF is the world’s largest organization dedicated to children’s welfare, but like most charitable efforts, it has not been without controversy. During its earliest years, when its efforts were aimed primarily at European children who had suffered during the European war, there was almost universal support for its efforts. Now that UNICEF has focused most of its efforts on developing countries, there have been more issues raised.

UNICEF has been criticized by some people for having a policy of helping to keep orphaned children in their birth countries to be raised by extended families or communities. Some groups that support international adoptions continue to oppose this policy. UNICEF has also lost some supporters because it encourages the use and distribution of contraceptives to control population growth and has supported safe abortions for women. These positions led the Vatican to stop its support of UNICEF.

Throughout its history, UNICEF has encouraged vaccinations for children. Now, during the Covid-19 pandemic it is working with the World Health Organization and with governments throughout the world to provide vaccinations in the developing world. It’s hard to think of a more worthy project.

2021 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of UNICEF and time to celebrate the immense amount of good the organization has done over these years. While the trick-or-treat for UNICEF boxes may have disappeared from our streets, this Halloween would be a good time to give a donation to the organization that has helped so many children throughout the world for almost a century.

Changing Roles for First Ladies

Adele Fasick6 Comments

This has not been the best of weeks for me, primarily because I had a fall early in the week, at home, of course, where so many falls take place. While I’ve been fretting over my aching muscles and experimenting with how to get my meals ready without putting too much strain on my sore leg, I haven’t had much time to think about a blog post.

Then I read an article about Melania Trump in the New York Times which set my mind to melania-trumpconsidering a subject I wrote about the changing roles of first ladies back in 2016.

Two of the most watched speeches of the conventions were those given by Michele Obama, our popular First Lady, and by Melania Trump, who aspires to be a first lady. Our Founding Fathers would be aghast if they knew that candidates wives were actually appearing in public and speaking on behalf of their parties and their husbands roles in politics.

Like so many other revolutions in American politics, Eleanor Roosevelt was a pioneer in opening the way for wives to speak at nominating conventions. She surprised everyone by appearing on the podium at the 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago to urge delegates to nominate her husband, Franklin. As the New York Times reported:

“Eight years after her husband shattered the tradition of the non-appearance of Presidential candidates before the conventions which nominated them, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the same hall and on the same platform, established another tonight, the first wife of a President or nominee ever to address a major political party conclave.”

The Times went on to report that the First Lady spoke with unusual gravity, both at the press conference when she arrived in Chicago on a chartered plane, and in the convention hall. Franklin Roosevelt had announced earlier that he did not wantEleanor Roosevelt1940 to run again, and Eleanor Roosevelt said she was not surprised at this because “I cannot imagine in the present state of the world, why anyone would want to carry such a burden…” Her reaction when told that her own name had been placed in nomination for the Vice Presidency was to laugh and say. “I could imagine nothing more foolish or less wanted.” Her speech, when it came, was forceful and the delegates went on to nominate Franklin Roosevelt by acclamation for an historic third term as President.

Eleanor Roosevelt, like both Michele Obama and Melania Trump…could not escape press comments on her clothes. “Her traveling suit was a tailored ensemble of navy cloth coat with long lapels of Eleanor blue, with a soft crepe dress beneath in the same shade. Her hat was a small one of navy straw in a modified beret type…” At least the newspaper did not report on her hair style or the height of the heels of her shoes.

Time has moved on since 2016, although Melania Trump, still gets many comments on her clothes and even on the height of her heels, other changes are being made. Our new first lady chooses not to be completely buried in the shadow of her husband any more than Eleanor Roosevelt or Michele Obama were. She has chosen a different route to independence. She did not move into the White House immediately after the inauguration, and she has chosen not to appear with her husband or travel with him as often as most other first ladies have done. Instead she pursues her own interests and has not been a fierce political supporter.

I urge you to read Kate Andersen Brower’s column “The Quiet Radicalism of Melania Trump” and think about the changes that are coming to the First Lady role in American politics. Sometimes long lasting changes occur without our even noticing. And sometimes they are made by the people we would least expect to make them.

No one wins at war

Adele Fasick3 Comments

Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “I cannot believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war”. The world has had a chance to see the truth of that statement over and over again during the last half century, most recently in the Middle East. Israelis and Palestinians have been struggling and fighting ever since the creation of Israel and no one has won.Eleanor_Roosevelt Many people have lost—lost their lives, their families, their freedoms—but there are no winners. There are no winners in Syria or Central Africa. Wars keep exploding and then sputtering out in temporary truces and ceasefires, but no one ever wins.

The same is true in all the wars against abstractions that America keeps declaring—the War on Cancer, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty—some have produced some limited good, but not one has ever been won. None will ever be won.

There is something wrong in the way we call for war every time we see something we don’t like. The only wars won these days are the fantasy wars on TV and movie screens where unreal villains are vanquished by unbelievable supernatural heroes. And only children believe in those.

The truth is, as the Friends’ Committee on National Legislation keeps telling us War Is Not the Answer.

It is not war that solves the world’s problems; it is hard work. That means the hard work of negotiating even with people we don’t approve of; the hard work of rejecting the schemes of arms manufacturers and refusing to send weapons to combatants; the hard work of education so young people will learn the value of compromise and conciliation; the hard work of listening to all the members of the UN no matter how unwelcome their comments.

War tries to exclude people—to push aside and overcome anyone and anything we don’t like, but life is lived by including as many people and opinions as we can, by hammering out agreements and compromises to keep the world moving ahead. How many of us remember the poem by Edwin Markham, a mostly forgotten poet, who wrote a verse favored by many anthologists and teachers?

He drew a circle that shut me out–
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

Eleanor Roosevelt knew that peace had to be won by drawing people in; the Friends Committee on National Legislation knows it too. How long will it be before our political leaders learn that simple truth?