Looking at Roosevelt's Four Freedoms 67 Years Later - Are We There Yet?

The year was 1941 and President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill was spearheading the formation of The United Nations. Roosevelt spoke of four freedoms that The United States hoped for the world's people. Those freedoms, when looked upon today still ring true as being the clear ambitions of most nations. The real question is, have we attained those freedoms?

The first freedom that Roosevelt spoke of was freedom of speech. One needs to look no further than China to see that this is not a world wide belief, and that you can still be killed in most countries for saying the wrong things. In America, we pride ourselves on this freedom, yet in a post-911 world, even that has been sent to the trash heap at times. Born of necessity to be sure, the government is slowly reigning this freedom in and squeezing the parameters. We have not by any means reached a world wide freedom of speech as of this writing.

The next freedom spoke of is the freedom of religion. This freedom is a lightening rod of epic proportions and has been so throughout history. In the United States, we do exercise a freedom of religion for the most part. Even in our country, as great as it is, not all religions are treated with the same freedom. As much as we are fervent in our desire to allow free religion, we still look at many religions with fear. True freedom of religion should be accompanied by freedom from persecution, and on this note the entire world falls short.

The third freedom he mentions is the freedom from want. This is a lofty freedom indeed and one that is a bit large to order up. Ethiopia comes to mind right away, as well as the myriad numbers of homeless and hungry throughout the world. This freedom is a long ways away from coming to fruition, though it is a noble freedom to wish for.