I would pay a lot more than five cents for a Roosevelt stamp to support our postal service, and to remind America of the actual freedoms that have guided our nation.

In his Four Freedoms Speech, President Roosevelt introduced new universal human rights that influenced political support for WWII at home and the ideological purpose of the United Nations.

• 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…everywhere in the world.
• The fourth is freedom from fear…anywhere in the world.

The first two bullet points, freedom of speech and religion, are protected by the first amendment of the US Constitution. Freedom from want refers to “economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants, everywhere in the world.” And Freedom from fear is a plea for disarmament, “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.“

In 1965, over 20 years later, President Lyndon Johnson expanded on the Four Freedoms in his vision of The Great Society, one that “asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.” And as steps towards realizing The Great Society, LBJ proposed the following as part of a new national agenda:

• I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing diseases. 
• I propose that we increase the beauty of America and end the poisoning of our rivers and the air that we breathe.
• I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the opportunity to vote.
• I propose that we honor and support the achievements of thought and the creations of art.

Today we have a President walking in the opposite (ideological) direction while demanding our loyalty along the way. Here are a few examples:

• Defunding the World Health Organization during a pandemic
• Lifting EPA controls on toxic air pollution among ~95 other deregulation efforts
• Forcing Wisconsin voters to risk personal safety in order to vote, part of larger efforts to suppress voter participation
• Dismissing the scientific consensus that climate change is real and proposing massive budget cuts of the arts

Right now the Postal Service is at risk of financial insolvency placing the entire mail-in ballot vote at risk. The President is thrilled at this prospect, and continues to actively sabotage American institutions created after WWII to protect our human rights. Today we have a President taking the path of isolation his predecessors warned will only end in a false sense of peace and a cheap forgery of liberty.

Let’s take a moment to remember the actual principles that make America great. The true freedoms that have propelled America since WWII are humanitarian.  They speak to the strength of universal human rights against the brutality of dictatorship and the rule of a few.