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

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NEW YORK—Everyone is, of course, enormously interested in the Soviet rocket which finally hit the moon, but as I read about it I wonder how it really affects us. To scientists it must have a certain interest and perhaps they will gain some knowledge of navigation and temperature, etc., but I find myself still more interested in the things that happen on this planet.

If there were people on the moon I would be enormously anxious to know how they felt about contact with the people of another planet, but no information of that kind seems to be forthcoming yet.

I am glad to know that we are taking the position that the moon does not belong to anyone on the earth. It seems to me that outer space in general must belong to itself, and if anybody is going to have jurisdiction, which I think is rather impossible, it had better be the United Nations for us all.

Are we going to begin and fight for the control of other planets? It seems bad enough to have to consider trying to keep the peace on our own planet. To want to control spheres that we know nothing about seems to me utterly ridiculous.

There was a little piece in the Sunday magazine of one of our New York newspapers on the fact that, young and old, we people of the world need something to hold on to that is permanent, and those of us who believe in God find this permanence only in our belief in God.

God really controls all these various firmaments, and even if the Soviets will not agree that there is a Supreme Being we at least have that one great satisfaction of knowing that it is His plan that sets the worlds in motion and that keeps the seasons coming and going.

Science has learned a great deal and we through our scientists are learning how to exchange knowledge and how to use it. So, let us hope for betterment of mankind—but we did not create the universe nor do we control it.

The American Association for the United Nations on Sunday afternoon held its annual meeting on the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria to greet as many of the United States delegation of the 14th General Assembly as could be present. This was followed by a small reception.

There were a number of the delegates who were not able to come, but seven were present and they spoke as though they were taking up their duties with great seriousness. I particularly liked the short talk given by Dr. Virgil M. Hancher, professor of law and president of the State University of Iowa, who said that he was very conscious of what he needed to learn. This seems to me the proper approach for anyone going to their first session of the U.N. General Assembly, and I feel sure he will prove to be a very valuable delegate.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1959, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, September 16, 1959

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.

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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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