History Reflection

1. The person I would've been interested to run into it probably Franklin D. Roosevelt. One, I would've probably felt awkward. I mean, he was in a wheelchair, that can say a lot about his character. If he were our age, you wouldn't probably thought he broke something while playing sports or he got into this horrible accident. Most people would feel a little awkward when approaching him. Even so, I would probably be interested in his story and ambitions for the future. I would imagine him to be a leader. Maybe of some sort of club, something to do with the world. He loved to move people in my opinion, especially if he feels strongly about something.

2. “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”
A quote from his first inaugural address. This is something that stood out to me because this is something that would work in even present day situations. It's one of those philosophies that just doesn't die because it applies to all generations.

"The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second freedom is every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world"

Loved this quote from him. I think this is something I would question the most, actually. I was wondering how he got the ideas of these freedoms. What was the thought process he went through when thinking of these? How did he deal with people thinking of loopholes in his speeches? What sort of troubles did he encounter by proposing these?

"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."

I think this was one of the quotes where I thought he was confident. I would've liked to see how he would deal with people in college. He was a leader, definitely, but would he also have the same confidence to talk to fellow peers? When he doesn't have the power of the president back then, I wonder how he'd establish his authority. Overall, the only reason I'd bring him here is to learn about the history and his experience. For example, when he was a kid, his thoughts on the current president.

3. I chose this person just because it would be kind of interesting to see how he was, first of all, back then, and second of all, meeting my mind set which is the mindset of a world of technology and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure internet over the years have skewed the thinking of all sorts of people. I would've wanted to see how he would cope with that since, personally, I feel as if people are influences by the wrong things everyday. How would he make his stance stand out? How would he speak out to a collapsing world?

I also chose FDR because of his affect to his community in his time. I mean, he was the president. He was in a situation where the president before him had an opposite way of dealing with the Great Depression. I personally wonder how he got the support of so many people. How must it have felt to have the whole world resting on your shoulders? He had some huge decisions to make. In history, it sounds all too easy. I wonder how he must've felt after vetoing a bill or speaking out the the public. Was he very confident? Did he ever think twice about something? How was his personality aside from being president?

4. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random House, 1938), 11–16. (Found at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057/)

http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-infamy.htm