"She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness"

A short Review for Women's History Month: I just saw a documentary I happened upon by accident called Eleanor Roossevelt - American's Greatest First Lady. Although having watched nearly every documentary about the Roosevelts over the years and read many books on them as well as on Eleanor Roosevelt, there were a few things I hadn't noticed before.

We all are aware that Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned in every way she could for the betterment of her fellow American Citizens. She worked for and supported the Red Cross, and she worked for and supported Civil Rights, Worker's Rights, the proper care of veterans, and she even established an entire planned community called Arthurvale in West Virginia to help the destitute mine workers during the Depression. That was something I didn't know.

Eleanor Roosevelt acted as a balancing force in regard to the work and attitudes of her husband during his presidency as well. For example, she pushed to have women included in the Works Project Administration programs and she also pushed to have AFrican American people included. I didn't know that she used her own income to support the Tuskegee Airman Institute! I also didn't know she had used her own wealth to create and support trade schools for economically deprived children in poor communities.

No matter the disappointments in her personal life, Eleanor never let any of that drag her down. She soldiered on courageously and whole heartedly in service to humanity both in our country and in the world and received many international recoginitions for her service to the UN and other efforts. She was often at odds with her husband as in his caving to pressure to exclude Jewish refugees from asylum in the US. He was a brave and well intentioned man but more aware, perhaps, than Eleanor that his political career depended on appeasing Southern white supremacists and isolationists. A few posts ago, I wrote about what I called a Virtuous Man, Jimmy Carter. In this post I salute a Virtuous Woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, a model for us all.

Happy Trails and Happy Women's History Month! Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com (as always, avoid the comments function as it is polluted by robo spam - use my e-mail to converse with me on any posts)