QU 301 Blog 1

It’s interesting within both of these Presidential speeches, both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama touch upon the concept of God and thus religion. FDR says in his “Four Freedoms” speech, “…and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.” In President Obama’s speech he talks about the Scriptures and talks about God’s grace being on the U.S. at the present moment in time, “…and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us…” America as a country prides itself on being a nation where freedom of religion is practiced and that any citizen will not be discriminated against due to what religion they may practice. But as a country we are getting the idea of God and religion thrown at us from a lot of different areas of life. It was brought up in class on Friday that the U.S. says there is a law that says there is a separation of Church and State, but on our currency the words ‘In God We Trust’ are printed everywhere. In our school’s, our children have to do the Pledge of Allegiance everyday, which states in it’s lines the idea that the U.S. is ‘…indivisible, under God…”. Being a Catholic myself, I don’t see any issue at all with having the idea of God on things surrounding our country. However, if I was Muslim or another religion I would probably not enjoy seeing something I didn’t necessarily believe being plastered all over my country’s money or having it spoken about by the heads of my nation. It just makes you wonder if in the U.S. we really have freedom of religion.
I really like the reality in which President Obama addressing our nation’s current state and the atmosphere of the country that he is now beginning to lead, “The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the [Presidential] oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.” There is a commonality of the environments that both Presidents, as well as the American people were living in. FDR’s America and the ‘storm’ that he was facing was caused because of just having been through the most devastating economic crisis America had have experienced. The U.S. was also about a year shy of entering World War Two. Today President Obama is faced with a similar America as well as a similar ‘storm.’ Our country is now in another economic slum, as well as being in a war overseas. Both speeches present these issues and realities to the American people and both address the fact that these issues will be addressed. President Roosevelt and President Obama go on into their speeches in a way to almost ‘pump up’ or ‘pep talk’ the American people to believing in what the Presidents say. They have to give the people the positive feeling that they hope to convey and to have the social climate between government and its citizens.