The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Monday—We had children in the White House with us over Easter, and the youngest members of our family have acquired a little white Easter bunny. To the children who read my daughter's story about "Scamper" in the White House several years ago, there will be no surprise in the fact that this new bunny was promptly named Scamper. He was brought by some WAVES as an Easter gift to Fala. I was a little afraid that even Fala's good education might not have eradicated his natural instincts as far as rabbits are concerned, so their meeting was brief, and the bunny now resides in a box of his own.

We all attended the early Easter morning service at Arlington. This is always a very impressive ceremony to me. We walked out to the Unknown Soldier's tomb which, in a time of war, has a particularly poignant meaning. As the sentry walks up and down guarding the tomb, he must be thinking today of all the boys all over the world who will be represented in this war in this symbolic manner.

Here one should, without question, rededicate oneself to the effort to lay foundations on which peace may be built by the generation that fights the war in the immediate postwar period. These young people will undoubtedly have to rebuild this torn and tattered world. The process will be painful and will call for boldness, self-sacrifice, courage and vision.

As each step is taken in this rebuilding process, we will see a peaceful world being shaped, or we will see the steps that lead to war being carved out again by personal and national greed and self-interest.

I am doing a broadcast today in the Treasury Department's Grandmother Series. I thought I was doing pretty well with thirteen grandchildren, but one of my co-grandmothers on this broadcast is far ahead of me. Like other grandmothers, I have been giving my grandchildren war savings stamps for birthday and Christmas presents ever since the war began, but since this is a special occasion. I think the youngest grandchild will have to have a bond of her own to mark it.

I must confess, however, that for the youngest members of my family I often try to have either a book or an inexpensive toy in addition to the savings stamps. Just lately I have been sent a charming little book called "Poppet and Pete," by Mrs. Margaret M. Pearson of Sydney, Australia, who has illustrated and printed the story herself. I gave it to one of the younger grandchildren.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT 1944 BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 11, 1944

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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