 As president, FDR used his birthday, January 30, to advance his most important cause—raising awareness and money to eliminate polio, a disease FDR knew first hand. In 1934, more than four thousand communities across the nation came together at 600 celebrations for what would become an annual “Birthday Ball.” They raised millions of dollars for the Warm Springs Foundation, a charity FDR founded in response to the scourge. He later chaired the March of Dimes.
Many today seem to have forgotten that such efforts led to breakthrough vaccines that eradicated polio throughout much of the world. Roosevelt likened the fight against polio to war. "It strikes with its most frequent and devastating force. And that is why much of the future strength of America depends upon the success that we achieve in combating this disease.”
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By Jonathan Shipley
Roosevelt’s passion for finding a cure— a vaccine—made defeating polio a priority coming from the very top leader in the country. READ MORE
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 Pare Lorenz and the U.S. Film Service Take on America's Problems
By Brent McKee
Lorentz believed in the power of film to inspire social change. Were he alive today and running a U.S. Film Service, we would see documentaries about global warming, ocean pollution, wildfires and America’s growing economic inequality playing at local movie theaters.
READ MORE
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A number of the New Dealers, including Frances Perkins, Harry Hopkins and Eleanor Roosevelt worked in settlement houses, which were inspired by John Ruskin. They saw the role of government as creating healthier individuals and a healthier society.
Gray Brechin is co-founder and Project Scholar of the Living New Deal in Berkeley, California. Free, donations welcome. REGISTER
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THE LIVING NEW DEAL WEBINAR SERIES 2022
The Art of the New Deal
 "The New Deal Artistry of Jo Mora” with Peter Hiller and Harvey Smith
Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 5pm PST
During his decades-long career, Uruguayan-born artist and author "Jo” Mora (1876-1947) created sculptures, illustrations, paintings, architectural adornments, dioramas, books and maps. Among Mora's most significant and lasting projects are two richly adorned public buildings he produced for the Public Works Administration—the Monterey County Courthouse and the King City High School Auditorium.
Peter Hiller is the Jo Mora Collection Curator and author of The Life and Times of Jo Mora: Iconic Artist of the American West (Gibbs Smith, 2021). Hiller will be interviewed by Harvey Smith, Living New Deal Project Advisor and author of Berkeley and the New Deal (Arcadia Press, 2014). REGISTER
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 "A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy" with Jennifer McLerran
Thursday, February 24, 2022, 5pm PST
Art historian Jennifer McLerran explores the New Deal’s role in promoting Native American arts and crafts. A former professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at Northern Arizona University, McLerran served as a curator of Native American art at the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University and the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. She currently is consultant to the Smithsonian on an upcoming exhibit of Native American textiles. She is author of “A New Deal for Native American Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy, 1933-1943 (UA Press, 2012) and A New Deal for Navajo Weaving—Reform and Revival of Dine Textiles, to be published in May, 2022. REGISTER
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
Can Democrats Break the Mid-Term Curse? Consider the Example of 1934.
Now that Joe Manchin has sounded the death knell—at least for the moment—for Joe Biden's Build Back Better package, Democrats are doomed in the 2022 midterm elections. Or, wait: Are they?
By Matthew Rozsa
Salon, December 26, 2021
Biden must reset his agenda, learn from FDR after Joe Manchin decision
Facing an economic crisis the likes of which America had never seen, FDR spread his legislation out over several months during this first year. Beginning with the Emergency Banking Act of March 9 (five days after he took office), he secured passage of 15 major pieces of legislation during the first 100 days of his presidency. But he didn’t try to do it all in one fell swoop like Biden is trying to do.
By Paul Brandus, Opinion columnist
USA Today, December 20, 2021
Black Civil Rights Icon to Replace Confederate General Statue at Capitol
Educator and FDR Advisor Mary McLeod Bethune,will be the first Black person to represent a state in the National Statuary Hall Collection ag the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
By Shirin Ali
The Hill, December 20, 2021
The Democratic Party is missing a big opportunity to learn from FDR's success
There was a time when Democrats called their party “the Party of Freedom.”It’s time for the Democratic Party to begin messaging like FDR did.
By Thom Hartmann/Indepedent Media Institute
AlterNet, December 8, 2021
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“During the past few days bags of mail have been coming, literally by the truck load, to the White House. Yesterday between forty and fifty thousand letters came to the mail room of the White House. Today an even greater number—how many I cannot tell you—for we can only estimate the actual count by counting the mail bags. In all the envelopes are dimes and quarters and even dollar bills—gifts from grown-ups and children—mostly from children who want to help other children get well. … It is glorious to have one's birthday associated with a work like this.”
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Ruskin Art Club
