QU 301 Blog 1

Brendan Rimetz- QU 301 Blog

President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech is one of the more well known speeches on the twentieth century. It lays out America’s stance on how the world should be in terms of human rights and all peoples’ ability to be free. The speech gives a basic over view on rights that all people should have such as the right to free speech, the right to religious freedom, the right to a make their lives better, and the right to not have to live in fear of war and violence. It is a relatively simple speech, yet it has an amazing impact because many people, especially Americans, still use these rights and freedoms as guidelines for foreign policy and their views of the world. These rights and freedoms are also still threatened or denied in many places throughout the world today and these violations of human rights are still discussed in speeches today.
In President Obama’s inauguration speech, he also addresses human rights violations and how the world still needs to change. While Obama’s speech is not a direct and straightforward as Roosevelt’s speech is, it is fair to say that he addresses many of the same issues that Roosevelt brought up in his speech. Towards the middle of his speech, Obama addresses the idea of religious freedom in America and how the country needs to use its ability to bring together so many different cultures and religions as an example to the world and as a way to bring peace to the world. Obama goes on further to discuss how he wants to work with the Muslim world and how he wants to bring peace to that area of the world. This is similar to Roosevelt’s idea of religious freedom and people’s rights to worship any religion they wish anywhere they wish.
Obama goes further into his speech where he addresses the poor, which is very much similar to Roosevelt and how he spoke about freedom from want. Obama said that he looks to help the poor people of the world to better their situation and that nations such as America and those that are well off, should help these poorer nations to become better, both economically and physically.
There are other similarities between the Roosevelt and Obama speeches besides the fact that they both address certain inalienable rights that all people should have. They both call for peace and oppose the idea of oppression as a way to gain power and standing in the world. They both also look to create a peaceful and civilized society and world in which nations work together to make peace and prevent any problems or disputes. They both hold high the idea of America being the ultimate example of freedom in the world and that as a free country we must help and support other free countries seeking to maintain and grow their freedom. Both Obama and Roosevelt believe that by following this certain set of guidelines, that peace can be obtained and that the world can and will be changed for the better.
While these speeches are somewhat similar in terms of guidelines and interests, it must be noted the tone and intention of the speeches was different. Obama’s speech was obviously an inauguration speech and therefore was somewhat idealistic and looked to address a wide range of topics. It is also meant to lay out the guidelines and ideals of his administration and how it will act and what it will look to accomplish. It was meant for the American people. Roosevelt’s speech as addressed towards a different group of people. It was directed towards people in the world at that time who where a threat to the American ideals and thoughts regarding freedom. It is meant to lay down the ideals that Americans would defend and looked to give possible reason for American involvement in the war that was occurring in Europe. Roosevelt understood that at the time of the speech there were numerous human rights violations occurring around the globe and he wanted to say that America would not stand for any other that. Those were really the major differences between the speeches.