资源描述
Roosevelts newspaper column “My Day,” ran from 1936 to 1962. The column was seen as a diary of her daily activities. In archiving her life happenings, Eleanors column often brought up the same issues as those of her press conferences. Those concerns based upon the public welfare often intrigued readers but discouraged political experts who said it lacked intellectualism. “My Day” also kept a record of the First Ladys hectic schedule. The column became somewhat of a newsletter for women in politics.In the spring of 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt signed with Womans Home Companion, a leading womens magazine, to do a monthly column. Roosevelt used the column to answer mail she had received from readers. The allotted space allowed her to discuss more social concerns such as prenatal care, better working conditions, American holidays, and New Deal programs to insure home mortgages. Readers petitioned for help of all kinds to which she responded graciously. During her time in the White House, Eleanor published over sixty articles in magazines with national circulations.Eleanor Roosevelt recognized a need for American women to take part in media communications. As a public figure she harnessed the power of the media and used it to interact with the women of America. By use of this medium, Roosevelt attempted to break the barriers of the domestic household and broaden the spectrum of women. She also set a precedent for following first ladies to remain in touch with the nation by means of the media. “America is all about speed,” She said, “Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed.”In 1941, Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, and other Americans concerned about threats to democracy established Freedom House. Once the United States entered World War II, she was active on the homefront, co-chairing a national committee on civil defense with New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and frequently visiting civilian and military centers to boost war morale.Eleanor Roosevelt was vocal against her husband signing Executive Order 9066 that interned thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry.In 1943, Roosevelt was sent on a trip to the South Pacific, scene of major battles against the Japanese. The trip became a legend, her fortitude in patiently visiting thousands of wounded servicemen through miles of hospitals causing even the hard-bitten Admiral Halsey, who had opposed her visit initially, to sing her praises. A Republican serviceman insisted to a colleague that he and the other soldiers whod encountered her warmth would gladly repay any grumbling civilians for whatever gasoline and rubber her visit had cost.Desirous of improving relations with other countries in the Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt embarked on a whirlwind tour of Latin American countries in March 1944. For the trip, which would cover a number of nations and involve thousands of air miles, she was given a U.S. government-owned C-87A aircraft, the Guess Where II, a VIP transport plane which had originally been built to carry her husband abroad. After reviewing the poor safety record of that aircraft type (many had either caught fire or crashed during the war), the Secret Service forbade the use of the plane for carrying the president, even on trips of short duration, but approved its use for the First Lady.Roosevelt especially supported more opportunities for women and African-Americans, notably the Tuskegee Airmen in their successful effort to become the first black combat pilots. She visited the Tuskegee Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Alabama and, at her request, flew with a black student pilot for more than an hour, which had great symbolic value and brought visibility to Tuskegees pilot training program.29 She also arranged a White House meeting in July 1941 for representatives of the Tuskegee flight school to plead their cause for more support from the military establishment in Washington.Roosevelt was a strong proponent of the Morgenthau Plan to de-industrialize Germany in the postwar period,303132 and was in 1946 one of the few prominent individuals to remain a member of the campaign group lobbying for a harsh peace for Germany.After the Presidents death by stroke on April 12, 1945, at Warm Springs, Georgia, while she remained in Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt learned that Lucy Rutherfurd had been with FDR when he died.34 Her biographer, Joseph P. Lash, called it a “bitter discovery” and wrote that Roosevelt alluded to this in her memoir of the White House years, This I Remember:All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together through long years get to know one anothers failings; but they also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration He might have been happier with a wife who was completely uncritical. That I was never able to be, and he had to find it in some other people. Nevertheless, I think I sometimes acted as a spur, even though the spurring was not always wanted or welcome.
展开阅读全文