FDR's Second Bill of Rights



Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights -1944

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created an "economic bill of rights" that would guarantee:

A job with a living wage
Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
A home
Medical care
Education
Recreation

Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security, and that America's place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice.

Excerpts from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944:

.....We cannot be content.... if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And.....we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.



The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

photo by Craig Smith



Starting from the premise that we can no longer live in a disenchanted world, it has been found that a profound enchanted engagement with life is not a childish thing to be put away with adulthood, but a necessity for one’s personal and collective survival.
~ Thomas Moore

The Particles of Light

photo by Emily ByWater

The particles of light naturally align themselves with the ultimate efficiency of energy and movement. There is a common spiritual bond between all things in the universe that makes us all part of the genius of nature's intelligence ~ which is in the innate knowledge that all species help every other specie naturally evolve towards a more complex organism.

In Appreciation for Our Family Farmers