Grandmère
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WHEREAS it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations.
WHEREAS the people of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
WHEREAS Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion and universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
WHEREAS a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge.
Now, Therefore,
The General Assembly
Proclàims
THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
ARTICLE 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
ARTICLE 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
ARTICLE 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
ARTICLE 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
ARTICLE 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
ARTICLE 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
ARTICLE 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
ARTICLE 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
ARTICLE 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
ARTICLE 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
ARTICLE 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offense or of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offense, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offense was committed.
ARTICLE 12. No one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
ARTICLE 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
ARTICLE 14. (1) Everyone has the right to leave any country to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from prosecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
ARTICLE 16.(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage, and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
ARTICLE 17.(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
ARTICLE 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
ARTICLE 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
ARTICLE 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
ARTICLE 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equal free voting procedures.
ARTICLE 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
ARTICLE 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for protection of his interests.
ARTICLE 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
ARTICLE 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
ARTICLE 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental s
tates. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents shall have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
ARTICLE 27. (1) Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
ARTICLE 28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
ARTICLE 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
After completing her work with the UN, Grandmère knew that, in her own words, there still remained “So many things to do!”
So Many Things to Do!
You are the people who are preparing the next generation for leadership. And, believe me, it can’t be done with fear. Men can never lead if they are afraid, for the leader who is afraid will never be followed.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
FOLLOWING PASSAGE OF THE DECLARATION of Human Rights many of Grandmère’s friends and family thought she would and should begin to slow down, to reduce her activities and enter into a period of at least semiretirement. But as she remarked to a New York Times interviewer in 1948, “I sometimes think of quickly finishing up all the things I have to do, and then just not doing any more, but there always seems to be so many things to do!”1
She not only continued her United Nations duties but launched into even more new endeavors. She resumed writing her columns and articles for various magazines and newspapers; began a radio talk show with Anna; and undertook a television show produced by my father. She joined or rejoined the boards of several organizations, including Brandeis University and the Americans for Democratic Action, and began spending hours and hours working with the organization she helped to found, the American Association for the United Nations (AAUN). She also began an extensive lecture tour and was often a spokesperson for the United Jewish Appeal, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Citizens Committee for Children, among others. As Joe Lash would note, “These were her regular jobs; but in between the fixed points that they constituted in her schedule, a swarm of invitations, requests for her aid, for her opinion, for interviews managed to proliferate.”2
Val-Kill remained always her favorite place to work and entertain: here she is with Fala and members of a UNESCO delegation.
Anyone who thought Eleanor Roosevelt would go quietly into the night of retirement certainly underestimated my grandmother! After all, she was only sixty-four, and by her own reckoning there was too much to be done to slow down.
On the family front things were changing as well. My father, Elliott, had entered into partnership with Grandmère to farm the eleven hundred acres bought from the government when the entire 1,365-acre Springwood estate was turned over as a historical site. Both Franklin Jr. and James had entered politics, Franklin as a U.S. congressman from New York and Jimmy, who had been chairman of the California Democratic Party, considering a race for governor against Earl Warren. Grandmère tried to temper her sons’ political ambitions, but her advice more often than not took second place to their sometimes impetuous, sometimes grandiose ambitions, as would be the case throughout their lives.
King Gustav of Sweden in 1950, obviously making a humorous point!
My dad was often called “the most lovable” of the boys. He was, like his grandfather Elliott before him, restless, and possessed personality traits that most assuredly reminded Grandmère of her own father. He was also perhaps the most impetuous of all the Roosevelt children. Even before the war he had entered a succession of business enterprises, from ranching to radio, and now was venturing into the fledgling world of television and writing. He too would consider the political arena, at different times contemplating runs for Congress, governor of Texas, governor of Colorado, and the U.S. Senate. In the end he was elected mayor of Miami Beach, Florida. Only my uncle John remained out of an active political life, preferring instead a peripheral role in the Republican Party.
Of all the changes now taking place, the one that was of immediate concern for Grandmère was the fact that her friend, confidant, advisor, and most able assistant, Tommy, was rapidly fading in health. Tommy was in many ways closer to her than any of her children. As she wrote just prior to leaving for the 1948 Paris General Assembly meeting, “Tommy is exhausted. I think this is the last time I can uproot Tommy, so I pray she will keep well…” By 1950 Tommy could no longer carry on, and it was then that Grandmère began training her successor, Maureen Corr. I must revel at Grandmère’s good fortune—Tommy had joined Grandmère in 1928 as her personal secretary and remained a loyal and dedicated friend for over twenty-two years, and now Maureen joined her as Tommy’s replacement, a most competent replacement I might add. Maureen too became a dedicated friend and assistant until the time of Grandmère’s death, and even now she remains a close, loyal, and understanding family friend.
By the early 1950s Grandmère was spending more time with family and friends, all of whom would congregate at Val-Kill at every possible opportunity. Along with her five children would come no fewer than nine wives and ex-wives, twenty-two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, assorted close and distant cousins, nieces and nephews, and a constant processional of friends, colleagues, politicos, statesmen, and neighbors.
Grandmère would frequently find herself serving as referee and mediator in the periodic tumult of relations between her children and their spouses and former spouses. Throughout their lives, the relationships between her children would often run hot and cold, as though they could never outgrow their sibling rivalries. It must have been difficult for them to have, from a very young age and throughout their lives, even their most personal actions subject to almost constant public scrutiny. Ordinarily, if one person was subject to derogatory press, other members of the family would be objective if not supportive. But the almost continuous feuds and squabbles among themselves would inevitably draw Grandmère into the middle, often requiring the use of her honed skills of diplomacy to settle the dispute. There were times, for example, when my father and one or another of his brothers might not be speaking due to some real or perceived disagreement or slight. Refusing to enter into the feud on either side but constantly trying to persuade the two to “see each other’s point of view,” one of Grandmère’s favorite tactics would be to invite all of the family to Val-Kill for some festive occasion (Christmas or Thanksgiving, for example) thus bringing about an almost forced truce. Seldom would anyone dare decline one of Grandmère’s invitations for a family gathering, where it was tacitly understood that no discussion of the internal strife would be accepted.
It was really quite amazing how this tactic could diffuse even the most volatile of feuds. Toward the end of my father’s life he and his brother Jim had a prolonged period of silence. When I asked my dad what the issue was, he laughed and said, “You know, it’s been so long I can’t remember.” I suspect that happened more than once over the years.
America’s Conscience
Democratic politics remained one of Grandmère’s principal interests, and in 1952 she became one of Adlai Stevenson’s most ardent supporters, considering him the standard-bearer of FDR’s New Deal principles. With reluctance she accepted an invitation to address the 1952 Democratic convention. With a clear if not direct statement of what she believed to be the Stevenson mantra, she used the words of a speech written by FDR to be delivered after his death: “If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all people of all kinds, to live together.” Her speech brought down the house, and Stevenson was the guaranteed nominee of the party. But no matter how hard Grandmère worked to promote his candidacy, he was defeated in the election by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Thereafter, she resigned her seat on the Human Rights Commission, and Eisenhower replaced her as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations in 1953.
Although a private citizen once more, she quickly and unabashedly became one of the McCarthy era’s most outspoken antagonists, defending those being purged by the smear tactics of Senator McCarthy and his Communist-hunting colleagues. Grandmère was one of the few influential public persons to have the courage to face down the feared McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities. To her, Joseph McCarthy and his “Red-hunting” colleagues were more dangerous in their ideology and tactics (which essentially ignored the rights of citizens guaranteed to all Americans) than the threat posed by the so-called Communists they sought to purge. “We must preserve our right to think and differ… That must be part of the freedom of the American people.” She exposed the often ridiculous McCarthy tactics when recounting that one day she was visited by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who were investigating the loyalty of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, one of the most ardent “Cold Warriors” of the Eisenhower administration. No matter how outspoken she was, no matter how often she challenged them, the senator from Wisconsin and his colleagues could never muster the courage to call her to testify before the committee. They must have realized what a terrible mistake that would have been!