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

      

NEW YORK, Tuesday—Talking of Fala yesterday reminded me of a very nice story. One day when I was to be away from home, I sent him to be plucked and have a disinfectant bath. When I went for him, the veterinary told me that a couple had driven all the way from Philadelphia to see him. Not finding him at the big house or at the cottage, they went on to the veterinary's, where they spent half an hour watching him. They left saying that their trip had been entirely satisfactory!

I think the widespread interest in Fala shows how many people in this country really love animals, and the love of animals is one of the reassuring traits in human nature! If you like animals, you usually like children, and if you are kind to children and animals, you are usually a very decent human being.

I think many people were shocked to read about the bomb explosion in British headquarters in Palestine. I am deeply disturbed by the violence which has been going on there, since I think that the leadership must be in the hands of hot-headed and misguided people.

Violence of this kind kills innocent people, and enough innocent people have already died in this world. More innocent Jews have suffered than any other people, so why they should carry on this same kind of senseless performance is difficult to understand, except that it seems to be a trait of human nature to want to retaliate in kind, no matter what the consequences may be.

Violence can only make a fair and reasonable solution in Palestine more difficult. It injures the cause of the whole Palestinian group of Jews, and yet I am sure it represents the activity of only a few. I know well what the Jews have suffered and I am not proud of the way in which so-called Christians have acted during these past years, but ever-increasing violence leads us nowhere.

Peaceful solutions in the troubled spots of the world are difficult to arrive at, and require great self-control and great patience, but I think we must strive to encourage the representatives of all nations to exert these rather unusual qualities or we will find ourselves again embroiled in war.

* * *

The Chinese situation is another baffling continuation of war under the cloak of peace. I am sure that Gen. George C. Marshall has labored as hard and as well as any representative of a peace-loving nation could. However, Mme. Sun Yat-sen's statement was disquieting. Granted that she is considered more radical and closer to the Communists than the rest of her family, still the mere continuation of so much friction between two groups within a country which has so long been torn by war shows that they are still not settling down and trying to create a unified government.

Word today that two of China's teachers, members of the Democratic League, which is the new middle-of-the-road party in China, have been killed adds to this feeling of lack of stability in a very old and civilized nation. For the sake of the rest of the world, the warring elements in China should find a way to work together.

No one can force us into war with Russia or with any other nation against our will, but difficult situations can be created which will make the work of reconstruction and unification infinitely more difficult for all of us the world over.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 24, 1946

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

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)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

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.

XML master last modified on May 2, 2022.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

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