Eleanor Roosevelt Quote

"I...came back to the White House shortly before twelve to go with my husband to the Capitol to hear him deliver his message to a joint session of Congress. I was living through again, it seemed to me, the day when President Wilson addressed the Congress to announce our entry into World War I. Now the President of the United States was my husband, and for the second time in my life I heard a president tell the Congress that this nation was engaged in a war. I was deeply unhappy. I remembered my anxieties about my husband and brother when World War I began; now I had four songs of military age." pg. 229

This particular quote jumped out at me for a number of reasons. Roosevelt makes a direct correlation to World War One. Although two different political situations and twenty years apart, she finds herself in very similar mindsets. She is filled with regretfulness, sorrow, and fear. She lived through the first World War, the "war to end all wars." She saw the destruction and mayhem. She experienced the rocky peacetime in which nations worked for collective security yet kept their own security and goals first priority. She is in disbelief that in the twenty years since Wilson spoke to Congress, nothing was accomplished. Roosevelt also faces this issue from multiple positions: first lady, U.S. citizen, and mother. She must look at the issue from a political standpoint. She understands that for the United States to survive, these are the actions that must be taken. As a mother and U.S. citizen, she experiences anxieties for her sons and the rest of the youth. They must fight in a war and risk their lives. She is upset for multiple reasons and uncertain about the years that lie ahead.