Thursday, March 6, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
LAST WEEK, THEY GATHERED to protest the building of a memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, a victim of crippling polio, served in the White House longer than any other person. According to the Associated Press, 75 protesters showed up with signs reading "Don't hide FDR's source of strength" and "Truth." The sign carriers represent disability groups that are angry because the statues don't flaunt Roosevelt's disability. They want him sitting in a wheelchair or wearing leg braces.
One protester, Kirk M. Bauer of Disabled Sports USA, said the statues are "the most humiliating and disgusting thing" that he has seen since he lost a leg in Vietnam. To that remark, I say baloney.
If Bauer wants to wear shorts around town to show he is an amputee, that's his business, but FDR, during his life, kept his physical impairment to himself as a private matter. This is the way he wanted it, and this is the way the four-term president should have his memorial constructed.
The visitors' center at the memorial site between the Potomac River and Tidal Basin will display Roosevelt's kitchen chair with wheels and a photograph of him in a wheelchair. Also carved in granite are the major events of the president's life, including "1921 -- stricken with poliomyelitis -- he never again walked unaided." The three statues of him will have him sitting. What more do the demonstrators want at the memorial which opens in May?
As for the demonstrators carrying signs saying "Don't hide FDR's source of strength," I wonder how they conclude this disability gave him strength. I'd rather believe he was a strong person who handled the disability as just one more barrier he would overcome in life.
Last year, when disability organizations made their first protest about the memorial's statues, one of the FDR Memorial Commission members, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, gave his point of view. Inouye, who lost an arm and almost his life during combat as an infantry leader in Europe during WWII, wrote a column published in the Washington Post newspaper.
Inouye told readers: "Of the 10 sculptures in the memorial, three depict the public persons of FDR as president, commander in chief and world leader. These FDR sculptures were inspired by real-life situations, and they show the president as he actually appeared at the time, seated, without a wheelchair or crutches present. This is, of course, the way FDR deliberately and painstakingly presented himself to the public.
"We know from FDR's two eldest grandchildren, Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves and Curtis Roosevelt, both of whom lived for several years in the Roosevelt White House, that FDR was an intensely private person who considered his disability a very private matter. They both confirm the historical accuracy of the memorial's portrayal of their grandfather. Another grandson of Franklin and Eleanor, David B. Roosevelt, has been an active member of the commission since 1992."
If the protesters were complaining about the memorial being difficult for them to view, that would be a legitimate complaint. But this isn't the case. Inouye wrote: "In compliance with the spirit and the letter of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the FDR Memorial was designed, from the beginning, with the disabled in mind. This is the first memorial in Washington purposely designed to be totally wheelchair accessible, with many areas for rest and contemplation. Also, a major bas-relief sculpture, titled 'Social Programs,' includes 54 detailed images, each with braille for the sight-impaired."
I've written about the debate over the FDR Memorial in the past and recalled how my generation remembered him as a leader during the Great Depression and World War II:
Roosevelt's voice over the radio gave all of us confidence to face both domestic and foreign problems. He could have had both his legs and arms amputated and it wouldn't have bothered us even one bit. He was the leader we needed during that period of our nation's history.
When he was alive, he hid his physical disability because he was afraid it might distract people from listening to his message. This was his personal decision, and the media of that era honored his desires. Why can't we continue to respect his feelings in any monument built in his memory? We are building it to honor a great American, not to promote him as a poster model showing how the physically disabled can overcome everyday challenges.
FDR overcame his disability his way, so I have to believe the decent way to honor this man is to do it in the way fellow Americans remember him and how he wanted us to see him. He certainly earned this simple consideration.
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