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

      

WASHINGTON, Sunday—I spent all day Friday in my apartment but it didn't mean I was idle, for the first visitors came in at ten o'clock. They were very purposeful guests, very anxious to got something done to awaken the public interest in an international educational organization which should be of great help in establishing the proper atmosphere for peace in the future.

All good educators realize, I think that no matter what arrangements we make, they will not meet permanently the needs of future developments. Therefore, we must grow in understanding and change our plans to meet the situations. Only by continuous education will this be possible.

* * *

Some guests for luncheon and for tea kept us more or less busy all day. Finally, in the evening, I went to the meeting at the New York Times hall where some returned veterans of this war—a boy still in uniform and two young ladies not long out of college; in fact, I think one may still have been in college—talked over the future of the world. The young man, who spoke primarily as a member of the American Legion, made some rather strangely conflicting statements. But then, he was rather dramatic and it is hard to be both consistent and dramatic.

* * *

On Saturday I went to the meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters. The women broadcasters have a very great opportunity to accomplish an educational job for the country, which no other group could possibly do. As Miss Dorothy Lewis, chairman of Saturday's meeting, pointed out, they speak to millions of women every day. No one else has that close contact. Theirs is the friendly voice which women come to know and trust—a visitor in the home telling us something of the outside world.

It is a great responsibility to have this power, but I felt very proud that women seem willing to accept the responsibility and planned to do a really fine job promoting international understanding.

* * *

I was very much touched and deeply honored at being presented with their first award. I know quite well, of course, that nothing that I do could be looked upon as a personal achievement, since I simply happen to be in a position where great opportunities are offered me and where circumstances make it possible for what I do to be helpful.

As I looked at the long table filled with representative women from other countries, and below us at the very wonderful women who head up our national women's organizations, I realized that no one woman in this country could consider that she had accomplished anything of which she could be individually proud. The women of the United States as a whole make it possible for women to have great opportunities and to achieve greater things as women for women as the years roll by.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1945, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Organizations
  • Helen Hayes Theatre (New York, N.Y. : 44th Street) [ index ]
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  • National Association of Broadcasters [ index ]
         [ LC ]
Geographic
  • Washington (D.C., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 19, 1945

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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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