Glance: The story behind NYC’s Four Freedoms Park
Oct 17, 2012, 6:42 AM
(AP) – The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is being dedicated Wednesday in New York City. Some background on the park and how it came to be:
_ It’s named after his State of the Union address given on Jan. 6, 1941, known as the Four Freedoms speech.
_ An excerpt from the speech: “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression _ everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way _ everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want … everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear … anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.”
_ The words became part of the charter of the United Nations.
_ The park is on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, in the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, and 300 yards across the water from the U.N. headquarters.
_ Planning for the memorial started 40 years ago but was cut short when the architect died suddenly and the city got mired in financial troubles.
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