A happy ending

Once upon a time there was a Democratic president, who, for the benefit of his country, pushed some rather radical new programs.

In one program, he directly appealed to America’s school children, asking them for their involvement and support.

Years later when I was in elementary school, children were still marching to his beat. Every American school child.

That man was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a polio victim, and his “radical” program was the March of Dimes,
the first organization to directly engage citizen volunteers to achieve social change.

Every school in this country passed out little cards with slots to be filled with dimes. Every kid worked untiringly to fill the slots.

We did it because we were afraid to play in water puddles. We saw other children encased in metal leg braces, cumbersome wheelchairs or iron lungs.

By the time I reached junior high school some of my schoolmates still wore the metal braces on their legs as children lined up for “cures” by Sabin and Salk.

So effective was this presidential program involving school kids, its focus eventually became the eradication of birth defects.

Imagine an American president asking school children to apply themselves for the betterment of their country.