Learning that the Fireside apple was named in honor of Roosevelt, I started reading FDR’s Fireside Chats. His rhetoric, clarity of vision, and reasoning were breath-taking. Most inspiring is his vision of the role of government. As he said in October 1933, we are “constructing the edifice of recovery—the temple, which, when completed, will no longer be a temple of money-changers or of beggars, but rather a temple dedicated to and maintained for a greater social justice, a greater welfare for America—the habitation of a sound economic life…” Compare his vision of government as the architect of a more secure life, with Ronald Reagan’s vision of government as the problem, not the solution.

As FDR said in his talk in May 1940, “there are a few among us who have deliberately and consciously closed their eyes because they are determined to be opposed to their government, its foreign policy and every other policy, to be partisan, and to believe that anything that the government did was wholly wrong.”

For those folks, and for all the rest of us who keep an open mind, we’ve sprinkled quotes from his Fireside Chats throughout the catalog. Read them, think about how much of what he said then applies today. We couldn’t begin to include all we would like. Seek out the full texts; they are easy to find online. We can find fault with any president. FDR shows us that we can find hope and inspiration as well.

Perhaps the Occupy Wall Street movement could take inspiration from Roosevelt’s words: “We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in the handling of the people’s funds.” March 1933. “We insist that labor is entitled to as much respect as property.” Sept 1936. As Woody Guthrie wrote in his song Dear Mrs. Roosevelt, “This world was lucky to see him born.” —David Shipman

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