Justice For All
jfs(AT)mailbot.com
Gore: FDR will be in Wheelchair.
JFA congratulates all who fought to see a statue of FDR in a wheelchair.
Following are the official statement from Vice President Gore and the
Associated Press story:
Washington, DC --Vice President Gore announced today that the
Administration has selected its preferred design for enhancements to the
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial to recognize that FDR became one of
our
greatest presidents while he had a disability.
"Today, I am proud to announce an important agreement between the
Roosevelt
family, the FDR memorial designer, the disability community, and the park
service to depict President Roosevelt in his wheelchair at the FDR
Memorial,"
Vice President Gore said. "This agreement will serve as both a tribute
to a
true American hero who led our nation through its darkest days and as a
reminder that disability is not a barrier to achievement."
Last year, the Administration worked with Congress to develop
legislation
authorizing a permanent addition to the FDR Memorial "to provide
recognition of
the fact that President Roosevelt's leadership in the struggle by the
United
States for peace, well-being and human dignity was provided while the
President
used a wheelchair."
The Administration has decided that the main entrance to the memorial
should
be configured to create an additional outdoor room, which will be
constructed
of granite. Located in the new room will be a bronze, human-scale statue
of
FDR in the small wheelchair he invented. The statue, located at grade,
will be
accessible to all visitors. The granite wall behind the statue will
contain
inscriptions and an associated bronze relief reflecting FDR's life before
he
became President.
This location, roughly across from the Visitor Center, will be
chronologically
consistent with the order of the other four outdoor rooms of the memorial
and
will allow for appropriate scale and lighting, while remaining consistent
with
the rest of the memorial.
The addition will be created by memorial designer Lawrence Halprin,
stone
carver John Benson, and sculptor Robert Graham, who created the
memorial's
First Inaugural and Social Programs sculptures.
In September 1997, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt appointed seven
private
citizens to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Committee, a subcommittee
of the
National Park System Advisory Board. The committee was charged with
reaching
consensus as to where and how the memorial should recognize that FDR used
a
wheelchair while leading the nation through some of its most difficult
times.
Memorial designer Lawrence Halprin worked with the committee in its
deliberations. Today, the Vice President and Babbitt accepted those
recommendations on behalf of the Administration.
The addition will be paid for with private funds raised by the National
Organization on Disability.
The National Park Services manages the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Memorial,
which received over 3 million visitors in its first year, making it the
most
popular tourist site in Washington, D.C.
--WASHINGTON (AP) - Bowing to the demands of activists for the disabled, the National Park Service will add a sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt in a wheelchair at the entrance to his popular memorial.
Roosevelt's paralysis from polio was often concealed from the public when
he was president, and the memorial's lack of emphasis on his disability drew protests when it opened in May 1997.
Clinton administration officials are announcing the addition Thursday.
Activists called the decision historically accurate and a powerful inspiration for the disabled.
``We're very pleased. We're anxious to get it there,'' Jim Dickson, director of community affairs of the National Organization on Disability, which led the campaign for the sculpture, said Wednesday. ``We need this statue to tell
all the children with disabilities and all their parents that anything is possible.''
Lawrence Halprin, who designed the Roosevelt Memorial, said he is comfortable the new sculpture will blend well with the memorial spread over a 7.5-acre site between the Potomac River and the rim of the Tidal Basin. It has four open ``rooms'' that tell the story of his four terms in office and the new sculpture will serve as a prologue, Halprin said.
``I'm extremely pleased since the assignment was that it would follow all
the characteristics and qualities of the existing memorial, enhance it rather
than look like an addition,'' said Halprin, a California landscape architect.
The memorial's original design has few obvious signs of FDR's disability, although the centerpiece sculpture portrays him seated, his Scottish terrier Fala at his side, in the wheeled straight chair in which he normally was pictured rather than a standard wheelchair.
``This is what we have been demanding,'' said Justin Dart, a veteran activist for the disabled and a key mover behind the Americans with Disabilities Act. ``This is what we feel will communicate the reality of FDR's life. He did, in reality, lead this nation from a wheelchair, every day for three and a fraction terms.''
Dart said Roosevelt felt he had to conceal his disability to survive politically.
``FDR didn't think it was politically practical,'' Dart said. ``Our world
is full of primitive assumptions and stereotypes.''
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chief sponsor for the disabilities act, said it was ``a day of triumph for people with disabilities.''
David Roosevelt, grandson of the former president, was initially opposed to the addition and remains skeptical that ``a memorial like this should be used to make a social statement.''
But Roosevelt, chief executive of a charitable foundation in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, recalled that his grandmother, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, talking about a sculpture of her husband planned in England, noted that he shouldn't be shown as disabled because that's not what her husband would have wanted.
The addition of the sculpture in a wheelchair should not detract from the design of the memorial, said Hugh Gregory Gallagher, a Roosevelt biographer and member of a committee assigned to determine where and how the president could be depicted as disabled.
``It will be at the entranceway, human-scale and freestanding, a statue of a person who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair,'' said Gallagher, author of the book about his disability, ``FDR's Splendid Deception.'' ``This was just an aspect of his life. Disabled people will be able to roll up beside it and
have their picture taken. Parents can tell their children 'This guy did it, and you'll be able to do it, too.'''
Los Angeles sculptor Robert Graham said his bronze will depict FDR before
he was president. ``What's required is a sense of optimism,'' Graham said, ``something that shows this man was not affected by his disability and went on to function as a great president despite his disability.''
Visitors to the memorial Wednesday had a mixed reaction to the news.
``If they wanted a memorial to the physically impaired, then they should build one,'' said Virginia Simpkins, 53, of Santa Rosa, Calif. ``I don't think Roosevelt was a spokesman for the physically impaired.''
But Mike Clayton, a 58-year-old from Haw River, N.C. said he thinks the wheelchair portrayal of FDR is correct. ``Everyone in our generation, we all know that he was in a wheelchair,'' Clayton said. ``I'm sure that the young people know it, too.''
-- Fred Fay Chair, Justice For All jfa(AT)mailbot.com HTTP://www.mailbot.com/justice
-- Justice For All Free Subscriptions:To subscribe to JFA send e-mail to: majordomo(AT)mailbot.com with the following in the body of the message: subscribe justice To end your subscription, send the message: unsubscribe justice If you change E-mail addresses please unsubscribe your old address and then subscribe to the new address.
Thank you.
-- End of document.--------- End forwarded message ----------
_____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]