Roosevelt memorial

Had the opportunity during my recent visit to Washington, D.C., to make a 1st visit to the Roosevelt Memorial installed a few years back on the edge of the Tidal Basin, a stone's throw from the Jefferson Memorial. The bronze statues recalling the life and times of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during the Great Depression and World War II, and Eleanor Roosevelt, 1st Lady and, eventually, U.S. delegate to the United Nations, were set against dark granite. The words etched in stone, they shone.

Depression-era soup kitchen line

Crippled by polio a decade before his election as President, FDR sits in his seldom-photographed wheelchair.

Perhaps the most famous line from FDR's 1st Inaugural Address in 1932; audio here.

Fala stands sentry at the foot of FDR.

Real men, and women, hate war.

Though the Roosevelts' record was not unblemished, their lifework helped to open a new era of human rights.

A call to global justice.

ER beside the symbol of the United Nations. Many women stopped, climbed into the alcove, and had their photos taken in a sisterly stance right next to Eleanor.