Four Freedoms
From Freepedia
The Four Freedoms are a set of freedoms United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously outlined in his State of the Union Address delivered to the 77th Congress on January 6, 1941 (the address is also known as the Four Freedoms speech). He outlined the following four freedoms, which he stated were fundamental freedoms all humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:
- Freedom of speech and expression - worldwide
- Freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - worldwide
- Freedom from want - individual economic security - worldwide.
- Freedom from fear - world disarmament to the point that wars of aggression are impossible.
Contents |
The Declarations
The speech delivered by President Roosevelt incorporated the following section:
In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
United Nations
The concept of the Four Freedoms became part of the personal mission undertaken by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt regarding her inspiration behind the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Postage Stamps
President Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech inspired a set of four paintings by Norman Rockwell which were reproduced as postage stamps by the United States Post Office.
Awards
The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute [1] honors outstanding individuals who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to these ideals. The Four Freedom Award medals are awarded at ceremonies at Hyde Park, New York and Middelburg, Netherlands during alternate years. Among the laureates have been:
- Harry S. Truman
- John F. Kennedy
- James Earle Carter
- Averell Harriman
- Coretta Scott King
- Elie Wiesel
- Thomas P. O'Neill
- William Brennan
- Mike Mansfield
- H.R.H. Princess Juliana of the Netherlands
- Vaclav Havel
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- The Dalai Lama
- H.M. Juan Carlos of Spain
- Shimon Peres
See also
External links
- Full text and audio of the Four Freedoms speech. An excerpt of the Four Freedoms section is also available.
- Full text of the Four Freedoms speech.
- Four Freedoms Democratic Club
- Complete text of Second Inaugural Address by President Bush on January 20, 2005



