During these summer months of 2022 we’ll for sure remember how hot it was. And is. Many of you took trips this summer to our National Parks and not a few even made a trip to Washington, DC. Well, I didn’t—not this year anyway.

This capital of the “people” is known for its National Mall and if you went to Washington, you probably spent some time touring the various monuments along its way. I enjoyed all of them the times I’ve been there. Probably the most memorable is The Lincoln Memorial. It is beautiful and proper for a president who in my view was the greatest and served us in one of our most historical and tough moments.

But, for me and my generation, Franklin Roosevelt was the main guy. The “big” guy who brought so much change in the way we view government and the presidency itself. At least while I’ve been alive.

Now that I’m old and getting gray I probably embrace FDR’s so called liberal policies of the day less than I did back when he inhabited the White House—and claimed my heart and the hearts of a hardpressed populace. Franklin Roosevelt won the White House with an overwhelming majority vote. People wanted change. They wanted relief from their newfound poverty and hard times and Roosevelt got elected promising just that. Relief.

I was a child back in those days. My memories of Roosevelt’s picture hanging in every Centrahoma School’s classroom, right next to that picture of Jesus, in itself gave me an opinion of who he was. He was on even footing with that of Jesus, I supposed. Roosevelt came across as a guy who was worried about us. Me, in particular. My dad liked to remind us of hard times and his taking a wagon load of pigs to Ada from Lula to the Sale barn in Ada (in1932) and receiving no bids—the first time around. That afternoon an offer of 50 cents apiece was rejected and most of the hogs were given away to hungry people as he drove his wagon back to Lula. A year of preparing and fattening up the hogs and the corn fed to them lost. Well, he admitted, his extended family over at Lula did get to eat the rest of them.

Former President Hoover got the blame for the collapsed livestock markets and the hunger and hardships that followed. It was the Great Depression and it got Roosevelt elected. Franklin Roosevelt made frequent and short little radio addresses to his people—called fireside chats. When these were programed, my dad would have us all get seated around the big Zenith radio in our living room and we were to be quiet, and we were to listen. And we did. Like we were listening to God Himself. I knew that Franklin’s wife Eleanor and his dog Fila (a little black Scottish Terrier) were like us, listening to his every word—as they should.

The last time I was in Washington, my family had to sort of wait on me as I dawdled a bit at FDR’s monument on the mall. It had four sections and I tarried in the one depicting him making one of his famous fireside chats. Those chats got him the support he needed to wage World War II and fight other problems of the day. He rallied the American people. For sure, he kept the people on his side enough to get him re-elected to his 4 ^th term. Roosevelt was loved and the people liked the way he gave them new confidence in America. Wish we had someone like that now.

Have a good week and I do enjoy hearing from you. Be sure and go to church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh cwaynebullard@gmail.com