Mount Rushmore in the magnificent Black Hills of South Dakota is an icon that captures the American spirit in a truly natural setting. It represents the largest work of art on earth with the faces of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, each standing 60 feet high. “The noble countenances emerge from Rushmore,” wrote architect Frank Lloyd Wright, “as though the spirit of the mountain heard a human plan and itself became a human countenance.”
This last week, H. Delano Roosevelt and his two sons, James and H. Delano II, at the invitation of a group of prominent South Dakotans and Mount Rushmore officials, visited South Dakota and spoke at Mount Rushmore. Delano is the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the great-grand nephew of President Teddy Roosevelt. When Delano’s grandfather FDR first visited Mount Rushmore in the summer of 1936 for the dedication of the unveiling of the face of President Jefferson, he stated, “I had seen the photographs and the drawings of this great work. And yet, until about ten minutes ago I had no conception of its magnitude, its permanent beauty and its importance.”
Delano was invited to address both Democratic and Republican groups while in South Dakota and the response to his remarks by both party groups and the general public was overwhelming. Delano, a former Long Beach, California city councilman and business consultant spoke on themes that recalled the progressive movements of Franklin, a Democrat, and Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican. Both of these presidents normally rank in the top 5 presidents in American history and their policies still resonate strongly in the United States.
Teddy Roosevelt is remembered for the Panama Canal, his conservationist and environmental policies and the famous statement, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Interestingly, Teddy first articulated this statement not far from South Dakota at the Minnesota State Fair in 1901 and attributed it to a West African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is remembered for helping America survive the Depression and “Dust Bowl” years of the 1930s and leading the US to victory in World War II in the early 1940s. And he accomplished this with a severe physical handicap. His legs were paralyzed and he used a wheelchair during all of the years of his presidency. I can still remember my grandfather’s eyes watering when FDR’s name was mentioned. “He saved our family farm in North Dakota in the 30s. I will never forget that man,” my grandfather used to say. Delano’s theme and stump speech, however, took concepts from both of his ancestors and applied them to our current times. He quoted Teddy at his inaugural address in 1905: “There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright.”
And he also quoted FDR from his inaugural address in 1932: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
The common theme was fear and the need to resist it. He pointed out that the American media wakes us up each morning with stories that put fear in our hearts — stories that make us think that we are about to be attacked at any moment. And he noted that almost all of our major politicians and government officials reinforce those fears with their statements and policies. And he stated, as his grandfather before him had implied, “Folks, we can’t fear ‘fear’ and we can’t let the media and our politicians continue to take us in that direction, but like my grandfather and great uncle did, we can do something about it. Let the nation stand on its own two feet and get back on track with the real problems that confront us like poverty, health care and environmental concerns.”
Delano also spoke about Saudi Arabia and the legacy of FDR’s relationship with the Kingdom and King Abdul Aziz. He consistently pointed out the tremendous business opportunities that American business is missing in the current Saudi economic boom. He noted that Saudi Arabia is South Dakota’s 10th largest export market and buys more from South Dakota than France. He also made mention of the almost 15,000 Saudi students who are studying in the United States and the benefits of both business and educational exchanges to both countries. He stated that these exchanges lead to better understanding of each other and the subsequent knowledge to not “fear” one another. A prominent South Dakotan, after hearing Delano, was quoted as saying: “Thanks for your remarks. Our community really needed to hear that.”
When Delano addressed over 3000 people at the evening lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore last Saturday with the face of his uncle Teddy looking down, he stressed the Roosevelt family’s legacy and what it meant not only to the creation of Mount Rushmore, but also to the fortitude and strength of the United States. And as he invoked the quotations of his Roosevelt forbearers about fear and he repeated his grandfather’s most famous saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation.
