11.4.2026 – preeminently

preeminently
time to speak truth, the whole truth …
frankly and boldly

Adapted from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1st inaugeral address, March 4, 1933 in Washington, DC, where President Roosevelt said:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action.

This speech is best known for the line, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

When quoted, the quoters stop here.

But look at the rest of the line …

–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Let’s look at this again.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself–

Nameless,

Unreasoning,

Unjustified terror

Which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Mr. Shakespeare put it:

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

I enjoyed watching the election returns last night.

Oh, decidedly that, enjoyed, I was overjoyed almost to the point of tears that this country seems to asserted itself and said, here the people rule.

Let’s go forward.

Let’s go forward without fear.

I do think that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and bold!

The time to speak the truth.

The whole truth.

Frankly and bold!

(WHAT A NOVELTY!)

Let’s go forward.

Let’s go forward with Truth.

Let’s go forward with Truth, frankly and bold!

SO much to do!

For right now, forgive me, my heart is in clouds and I do feel like its morning again for this Country.