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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born too late to have his face on Mount Rushmore —his cousin Teddy received that accolade. Instead, in 1997, the nation honored FDR with a memorial on the Washington, D.C., mall, placing him on a par with Thomas Je=erson and Abraham Lincoln. The imposing memorial to Roosevelt di=ers from the other portraits and sculptures of FDR because it shows him seated in a wheelchair. To be sure, this monument re?ects our acceptance of the handicapped, which came of age in the 1990s. The sculpture also seeks to bring us an enlightened image of the handicapped, certainly a change to which FDR contributed. But is the story of this remarkable president more complex than the sculpture suggests? Stricken by polio at the age of thirty-nine, Roosevelt spent twenty-four years of his life in wheelchairs and other types of chairs. Because of society’s irrational fear of polio victims, Roosevelt was compelled to su=er the painful discomfort and the enormous di;culties of appearing to stand and to walk unattended. FDR labored and intrigued tirelessly to hide his frailties from the public. His goal was to present to the world a robust man whom they could admire, not one of those cripples whom society normally shunned. That said, the sculpture may do a disservice to a president whose >nest athletic performances took place while giving the illusion of walking and standing. This political giant, who worked so assiduously to hide his wheelchair-bound prison— would he have wanted this image of himself cast in bronze for all posterity to view? Athletes come in many shapes and forms. Like a circus high-wire artist or an Olympic gymnast, Franklin Roosevelt learned to defy the forces of gravity as he stood and moved on his totally paralyzed and useless legs. Moreover, he learned to do it gracefully, laughing and talking, and giving his jaunty, uplifted, infectious smile. None of these movements came naturally. They demanded 12 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Politically and Physically Challenged ★ ★★ ★★★★★ ★ ★★ athleticism and determination. If we de>ne athletics as embodying strength, agility, and endurance, FDR displayed all of the qualities of a trained athlete. And it was not sheer vanity. Given the temper of the times, his athletics were based on political and personal need. The Roosevelt portrayed at the Roosevelt Memorial hardly conjures up images of an athletic president. But FDR’s presidency was, more than most, a presidency marked by extreme athleticism and one that will not likely be repeated. Franklin Roosevelt, a victim of polio, lived before the handicapped participated in traditional sports; before there were mobile paraplegics participating in the Special Olympics; before the handicapped cycled, skied, ran, and played team sports. He lived before society was mature enough to accept a handicapped person as, >rst of all, a person. His greatness lies not in his ability to hike, box, or ride horseback, or in conventional sports such as tennis and golf, though he was a >ne golfer before he was disabled by polio. Franklin Roosevelt excelled in an arena into which no president before or after has entered—or is likely to. He competed as a handicapped president at a time when the physically challenged were also challenged by society’s norms. In 1921, while vacationing at Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Roosevelt su=ered a severe case of poliomyelitis that would leave his lower body paralyzed. Without the use of wheelchairs and burly helpers, this large man was rendered immobile. Only when he was in the water, preferably at Warm Springs, Georgia, could he achieve the buoyancy to exercise his legs and move about at will. Because of the stigma attached to polio, he had to overcompensate . Not that the public expected that a governor and, in the 1930s, the president to excel as an athlete. Al Smith, presidential candidate in 1928, who supported FDR’s run for New York governor, argued that the candidate’s lack of mobility posed no problem: “A Governor does not have to be an acrobat,” Smith insisted. “We do not elect him for his ability to do a double back-?ip or a handspring.” Four years later, the American people, su=ocating under the weight of the worst depression in American history, wanted a president who exuded con>dence and promised to lend them a helping hand.1 Would the Democratic Party have nominated a candidate with visibly heavy steel braces and withered legs? Probably not in 1932...

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