February 1st is National Freedom Day
By Donna Germany
On June 30, 1948, Harry S. Truman wrote a proclamation
declaring February 1st as National Freedom Day.
Why February 1st? On
1865, Abraham Lincoln signed the resolution that led to the adoption of the 13th
amendment of the constitution. In his proclamation, Truman wrote about this
day we should pause and remember “the glorious blessings of freedom which we
humbly and thankfully enjoy.”
With this proclamation Truman supported the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights approved by the General Assembly of the United
Nations. This declaration “recognized
the inherit dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of
the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”
The United Nations was borrowed this theme from the State of
the Union address by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s January 1941 address. “The Four Freedoms speech,” written before
World War II, identified the four
freedoms that people everywhere should enjoy.
Those four freedom where freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom
from want, and freedom from fear.
Norman Rockwell then did a series of oil paintings in
1943. Those paintings were reproduced by
Saturday Evening Post. The Post
and the US Department of the Treasury did a touring exhibition of those
paintings that raised $132 million in war bonds. My dad was an admirer of those prints and had
copies above the dining room table. I
have searched for the essays that accompanied those artist renditions. I have been able to find two through the
internet, not the original magazine article.
Funny, one idea started the movement of another. One writer started an idea that last
eighty-three years. History built on one
theme: Freedom. Do you think that your writing can stand the
test of time? Will it be memorialized by
artist and other writers? Isn’t that
what writing is meant to do? We should
strive to find a theme so others can build a platform that will stand the test
of time.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87188
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