Footnote to the preceding

Roosevelt's "four freedoms" are found in his State of the Union address, January 6, 1941. On the whole, the speech is rather martial, but I guess that's to be expected considering the times. Even so, these few lines are what have survived and I think they still are worth considering both for the vision they present and for how far short of fulfilling that vision we are still falling.

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, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - 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.

I would add the phrase "or to worship no God at all" (and change "his" to "their") to the second freedom, but beyond that, as an outline, not a bad place to stand even now.