Live Chat: Harvey J. Kaye

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Harvey J. Kaye (Credit: Sean Sime)

Harvey J. Kaye (Credit: Sean Sime)

On Tuesday, author and historian Harvey J. Kaye joined us for a live Web chat here at BillMoyers.com. Kaye spoke with Bill this week about why Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms — freedom from fear and want and freedom of speech and religion — are now more important than ever.

In the chat, he answered questions about the Four Freedoms and how they have been co-opted and redefined by conservatives — and how he believes progressives must take back the mantle and fight for the Four Freedoms in the 21st century. Replay the live chat by pressing play below.

  Live Chat with Harvey J. Kaye (04/15/2014) 
11:37
Moyers & Company: 

We won’t be getting started until 2 p.m. Eastern time, but you may enter your questions and comments for historian Harvey J. Kaye beforehand in this window.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 11:37 Moyers & Company
11:38
Moyers & Company: 

A few notes on Mr. Kaye’s biography: Harvey J. Kaye is the Ben and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies and Director of the Center for History and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 11:38 Moyers & Company
11:43
Moyers & Company: 

An award-winning writer, he authored Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), Are We Good Citizens? (2001), Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution (2000), “Why Do Ruling Classes Fear History?” and Other Questions (1996), The Education of Desire (1992), The Powers of the Past (1991), and The British Marxist Historians (1984). He has also contributed articles and essays to a diverse array of publications, including The American Prospect, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 11:43 Moyers & Company
11:45
Moyers & Company: 

And, of course, his most recent book, the subject of Bill Moyer’s interview and today’s live chat: The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great. You can read an excerpt from the book on our site.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 11:45 Moyers & Company
12:11
Moyers & CompanyMoyers & Company
Tuesday April 15, 2014 12:11 
2:00
Moyers & Company: 

Thank you so much for joining us for our live chat with historian Harvey J. Kaye!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:00 Moyers & Company
2:00
Harvey J Kaye: 

Hello!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:00 Harvey J Kaye
2:00
Moyers & Company: 

Harvey is here with us.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:00 Moyers & Company
2:00
Moyers & Company: 

Hello Harvey!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:00 Moyers & Company
2:01
Moyers & Company: 

Why don’t we start by asking you to talk about why you decided to write your book about FDR.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:01 Moyers & Company
2:01
Harvey J Kaye: 

The last book I wrote was on Thomas Paine and it impressed me that FDR quoted Thomas Paine early in the war to mobilize Americans to fight Fascism.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:01 Harvey J Kaye
2:02
Harvey J Kaye: 

But it had to do with more than that really – my father was a WWII veteran who had served in the Army in the Battle of the Bulge

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:02 Harvey J Kaye
2:02
Harvey J Kaye: 

and when there was all the talk in the 1990s of the Greatest Generation, I felt something was sorely missing from the conversation.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:02 Harvey J Kaye
2:03
Harvey J Kaye: 

There was no mention of what the Greatest Generation actually fought for. No mention of FDR’s pronouncement of the Four Freedoms.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:03 Harvey J Kaye
2:03
[Comment From F.J. LeBoutonF.J. LeBouton: ] 

Why haven’t people better informed other generations about the legacy of FDR?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:03 F.J. LeBouton
2:04
Harvey J Kaye: 

Americans carry with them a good idea of what FDR was about but ever since the New Deal itself, Conservatives have sought to suppress the memory of the struggles for freedom, equality and democracy that FDR inspired in his speeches and policy initiatives.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:04 Harvey J Kaye
2:05
Harvey J Kaye: 

The memory of the Four Freedoms has been under siege for decades now. Again, Conservatives fear freedom of speech, freedom from want and fear as ideals.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:05 Harvey J Kaye
2:05
Harvey J Kaye: 

They do everything they can to either suppress them, corrupt them, or appropriate them oddly enough.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:05 Harvey J Kaye
2:06
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

What a wonderful chat. Enjoyed the show so much. I ordered the book, and feel it should be on every bookshelf. Very important

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Guest
2:06
Harvey J Kaye: 

Thank you so much!!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Harvey J Kaye
2:06
Harvey J Kaye: 

Let me know what you think of it, please, when you finish reading. If you like it, join me in renewing the Fight for the Four Freedoms.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Harvey J Kaye
2:06
[Comment From PatPat: ] 

Mr. Kaye – Thank you so much for writing this book. It is exceptional…it should be on every bookshelf. FDR and Eleanor and their team were builders and creators – not unlike the founding fathers. If people come together and remember we can do so much.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Pat
2:06
Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Helen Carter
2:06
Harvey J Kaye: 

Thank you both!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:06 Harvey J Kaye
2:07
[Comment From Patricia LavinsPatricia Lavins: ] 

What would FDR do to combat the 24 hour news cycle that has allowed the Tea Party to pollute our political landscape? (from website)

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:07 Patricia Lavins
2:07
Harvey J Kaye: 

FDR was media savvy. He knew newspaper moguls did not like him or the New Deal. So, he cultivated the reporters.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:07 Harvey J Kaye
2:08
Harvey J Kaye: 

Also, I would note that when Eleanor began to write columns in the mid 1930s, she joined a union, the Newspaper Guild. Reporters must have liked that.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:08 Harvey J Kaye
2:08
Harvey J Kaye: 

And don’t forget, FDR often spoke directly to the American people on the radio – the Fireside Chats.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:08 Harvey J Kaye
2:08
Harvey J Kaye: 

I don’t know exactly what he would do today, but I have no doubt he would have come up with something.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:08 Harvey J Kaye
2:08
[Comment From StevenSteven: ] 

FDR explained in his 1944 State of the Union Message that: “This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world’s greatest war against human slavery. “We have joined with like-minded people in order to defend ourselves in a world that has been gravely threatened with gangster rule.” I watched the show on Sunday and would value your comments on this observation: “Today it sometimes seems we won WWII, celebrated paths along the arc of history during the past 60 years that reached for goals articulated by FDR, and now may be coming full circle to risk losing the war at home against human slavery and gangster rule.” (from website)

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:08 Steven
2:09
Harvey J Kaye: 

Inequalities of power and wealth recall the Gilded Age. Our hard-fought-for rights are under siege – from the voting booth to Women’s right to choose.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:09 Harvey J Kaye
2:10
Harvey J Kaye: 

The environment decays along with our public infrastructure. We are at the point when we must act. Not only through organizations but by turning out in the public square.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:10 Harvey J Kaye
2:10
Harvey J Kaye: 

If our leaders won’t speak for us, we need to make noise and let each other know we are ready to take action.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:10 Harvey J Kaye
2:10
Harvey J Kaye: 

Thomas Paine would have us do no less and FDR would have welcomed it. As he said, enacting new laws does not bring the millennium – laws require popular initiative.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:10 Harvey J Kaye
2:11
[Comment From RebeccaRebecca: ] 

Can you speak a bit more about what the form of a new type of citizen organizing would look like? While we have a situation of activists working on diverse fronts, it seems to me that there is little to no energy for mass struggle against the loss of our freedoms, particularly as regards economics and money in politics. (from website)

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:11 Rebecca
2:11
Harvey J Kaye: 

Yes, organizing is essential. New organizations need to take shape but I cannot imagine an effective, progressive politics without labor unions – labor indeed needs to take the lead in mobilizing Americans in favor of the Four Freedoms.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:11 Harvey J Kaye
2:12
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

Rebecca, good question

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:12 Guest
2:12
Harvey J Kaye: 

Labor still has tremendous resources, many a brother and sister still go door to door at election time, canvassing.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:12 Harvey J Kaye
2:12
Harvey J Kaye: 

At the same time, labor needs to be energized, readier to embrace movements such as Occupy.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:12 Harvey J Kaye
2:13
Harvey J Kaye: 

Back in the 90s, a few dozen pro-labor academics organized SAWSJ – Scholars, Artists and Writers for Social Justice, in hopes of advancing Labor’s agenda in the public media. We failed. But we need that effort again all across the country.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:13 Harvey J Kaye
2:13
[Comment From PaulPaul: ] 

Why have conservatives been successful in suppressing the New Deal history? Many oppressed people, such as women and Native Americans, remember their history of oppression. What makes the working class so different? And how can we organize in an effective manner that reminds us about our history and reinvigorates its spirit?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:13 Paul
2:14
Harvey J Kaye: 

I often think class scares the powers-that-be more than any other question.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:14 Harvey J Kaye
2:15
Harvey J Kaye: 

It strikes directly at the distribution of power, wealth and income, the very questions that FDR raised in his speeches, questions that inspired Americans to not only take up the labors of the New Deal but also to organize unions, consumer campaigns and civil rights groups in the 1930s.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:15 Harvey J Kaye
2:16
Harvey J Kaye: 

But there was something more that happened in the 1930s, American artists, writers, musicians, and other intellectuals committed themselves to the popular struggles of the day.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:16 Harvey J Kaye
2:16
Harvey J Kaye: 

When we organized SAWSJ, we wanted to contribute as they did, we wanted to make history more democratic.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:16 Harvey J Kaye
2:17
Harvey J Kaye: 

For too long, we who labor with words have talked to each other or merely to our students. It’s time we learned how to talk more effectively to our fellow citizens – young and old.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:17 Harvey J Kaye
2:18
[Comment From Carolyn StoutCarolyn Stout: ] 

How would you compare today’s gilded age with the first one? Are there any Roosevelts around?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:18 Carolyn Stout
2:18
[Comment From JulieJulie: ] 

Maybe one hope: immigrant labor organizers, e.g. one of the Four Freedoms honorees this year, Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers https://billmoyers.com/2013/…

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:18 Julie
2:19
Harvey J Kaye: 

There are always Roosevelts around. The question we confront is “how do we make them known, how do we propel them to positions from which they can speak to us and so many more”

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:19 Harvey J Kaye
2:19
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

Julie – good point.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:19 Guest
2:19
Harvey J Kaye: 

I think Roosevelt knew that. Moreover, he had great senators to work with – Norris of Nebraska, LaFollette of Wisconsin and Wagner of New York.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:19 Harvey J Kaye
2:20
Harvey J Kaye: 

Today, we have Warren of Mass. Sanders from Vermont, Baldwin from Wisconsin.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:20 Harvey J Kaye
2:20
Harvey J Kaye: 

But we need more of them! Don’t forget to vote in 2014.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:20 Harvey J Kaye
2:20
[Comment From Martin FassMartin Fass: ] 

Our theme this month at the Unitarian Church in Rochester, NY, is: Freedom. To what degree do you think we need some basic education, because of the tendency, it seems to me, to think of “freedom” only in terms of doing what one personally wants to do, without restrictions or criticism?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:20 Martin Fass
2:21
Harvey J Kaye: 

Freedom is America’s premier value and ever since the 1770s, we have been involved in a struggle over what that means.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:21 Harvey J Kaye
2:22
Harvey J Kaye: 

For the last 35 years, it seems the Right has had a monopoly in defining the meaning of Freedom. Indeed, the meaning of America.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:22 Harvey J Kaye
2:22
Harvey J Kaye: 

FDR cited the Founding Fathers to bolster his argument that necessitous men are not free men.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:22 Harvey J Kaye
2:23
Harvey J Kaye: 

So, we need to reclaim the Declaration of Independence – all men are created equal, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:23 Harvey J Kaye
2:23
Harvey J Kaye: 

We need to remember the Preamble – we, the people, in order to form…

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:23 Harvey J Kaye
2:23
Harvey J Kaye: 

FDR in the 1930s articulated Freedom to mean Democracy, not individualism alone.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:23 Harvey J Kaye
2:24
[Comment From brian hayesbrian hayes: ] 

.. what is education’s role in securing the 4 freedoms ?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:24 brian hayes
2:24
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

freedom is not a “me” it’s a “we”

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:24 Guest
2:25
Harvey J Kaye: 

FDR said, education is fundamental, especially historical education. In 1941, he said A Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:25 Harvey J Kaye
2:25
Harvey J Kaye: 

It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:25 Harvey J Kaye
2:26
[Comment From Karen Lee DeeringKaren Lee Deering: ] 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if President Obama presented verbatim FDR’s Four Freedoms speech for his final State of the Union … My question: Would a Four Freedoms initiative work now as it did in the 30’s when sensible working and poor folk never expected to be wealthy? They knew a small break and a safety net could edge them into the middle class. Our working poor have been convinced by conservatives and Republicans that they too can be wealthy… that they are temporarily embarrassed millionaires and must vote with the oligarchs. (From Website)

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:26 Karen Lee Deering
2:27
Harvey J Kaye: 

I sent Obama a letter in the 2008 campaign urging him to speak of FDR’s Four Freedoms -which he referred to in the AUDACITY OF HOPE… But I only saw him cite the Freedoms once – when he spoke of foreign policy matters in Miami….

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:27 Harvey J Kaye
2:27
Harvey J Kaye: 

I continued to hope he would embrace FDR’s promise – and even now I would love him to do so. But he focuses on policy and program not vision in his speechmaking.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:27 Harvey J Kaye
2:28
Harvey J Kaye: 

WE need to remind him of the FOUR FREEDOMS. We should launch an email campaign perhaps…???

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:28 Harvey J Kaye
2:28
Harvey J Kaye: 

Looking ahead to 2016, we may want to start a campaign to re-re-elect FDR in hopes it will send a message to candidates. Have a look at this later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fzdga0rGxQ

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:28 Harvey J Kaye
2:28
[Comment From jtennjtenn: ] 

What might have happened had Americans not voted FDR into office in 1932? Why has B.Obama blown the biggest opportunity afforded a president since 1932? (From Facebook) FDR left a LEGACY. Obama? Disappointment: re what what might have been. Why?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:28 jtenn
2:29
[Comment From Cory KempCory Kemp: ] 

I’d love to participate in an email campaign.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:29 Cory Kemp
2:29
[Comment From Martin FassMartin Fass: ] 

I’d be happy to be part of such a campaign. I will check the youtube material you just referenced. Thank you.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:29 Martin Fass
2:29
Harvey J Kaye: 

What a scary thought! No New Deal, no Social Security, no National Labor Relations Act…FDR himself may well have answered you, in a radio address in 1938 he said, “As of today, Fascism and Communism—and old-line Tory Republicanism—are not threats to the continuation of our form of government…

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:29 Harvey J Kaye
2:30
Harvey J Kaye: 

But I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, then Fascism and Communism, aided, unconsciously perhaps, by old-line Tory Republicanism, will grow in strength in our land.”

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:30 Harvey J Kaye
2:31
Harvey J Kaye: 

The greatest disappointment about Obama is that a man so smart, so articulate, and so effective at inspiring young people failed to engage the young folk that he mobilized to vote for him after his election.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:31 Harvey J Kaye
2:31
Harvey J Kaye: 

Instead of engaging their energies in a new New Deal, a new CCC for example, he spent his time negotiating with Congress.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:31 Harvey J Kaye
2:32
Harvey J Kaye: 

While he negotiated, the Tea Party occupied the public spaces that we should have occupied.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:32 Harvey J Kaye
2:32
[Comment From jayjay: ] 

My mother was a cadet nurse in the cadet nurse corps during world war two. she was called to serve by Roosevelt -for a larger good – she cherished the opportunity to serve her country when she was proud of our country, and what we, as people could do. She now sees a real moral decay with tea party dominance.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:32 jay
2:32
Harvey J Kaye: 

Your mom is right, unfortunately. It’s time we consider enacting a National Service program.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:32 Harvey J Kaye
2:33
Harvey J Kaye: 

This would enable young Americans to experience solidarity – a solidarity that would enable THEM to transform themselves and the Nation.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:33 Harvey J Kaye
2:34
[Comment From DHFabianDHFabian: ] 

DHFabian: Not everyone can work, due to health or circumstances, and there simply aren’t jobs for all who need one. What should we do about these — the long-term unemployed and unemployable, our “surplus population”? This generation rejects the idea of “freedom from want.”

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:34 DHFabian
2:34
[Comment From pointofgrillepointofgrille: ] 

The current crumbling infrastructure of our nation provides another opportunity for our nation to put everyone to work. We need the political and moral courage to side step corporate America, in order to take the people and the nation on a progressive journey of rebuilding our nation’s social welfare and infrastructure.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:34 pointofgrille
2:35
Harvey J Kaye: 

I repeat that I was very disappointed that Obama failed to create a new National Service opportunity for high school and college students, along the lines of FDR’s CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:35 Harvey J Kaye
2:35
Harvey J Kaye: 

Plus, we sure could use another WPA!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:35 Harvey J Kaye
2:35
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

Service is part of being a citizen

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:35 Guest
2:35
Harvey J Kaye: 

Agreed!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:35 Harvey J Kaye
2:36
Harvey J Kaye: 

FDR said: A true patriotism urges us to build an even more substantial America where the good things of life may be shared by more of us, where the social injustices will not be encouraged to flourish.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:36 Harvey J Kaye
2:37
[Comment From KathleenKathleen: ] 

What do you think about the call for campaign finance reform and the proposal for an Article V convention of the states to overturn the C.U. decision and more recently the McCutcheon decision? What do you suppose FDR and Paine would say about restoring the protections of the Constitution to human beings?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:37 Kathleen
2:38
Harvey J Kaye: 

It is inconceivable to me that we treat corporations as if they were human beings. Hell, as if they were citizens.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:38 Harvey J Kaye
2:38
Harvey J Kaye: 

If it requires an amendment to the Constitution, so be it. FDR said that economic royalists complain we are trying to overthrow American institutions.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:38 Harvey J Kaye
2:39
Harvey J Kaye: 

But really they fear we are trying to overthrow their power. And we are. As FDr said, American freedom, American history, demand that we do.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:39 Harvey J Kaye
2:39
Harvey J Kaye: 

We must restore democracy to ourselves. We, the People.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:39 Harvey J Kaye
2:40
[Comment From GuestGuest: ] 

We had the New Deal and the Great Society- we were energized to action. We seem beaten down as a people and led by fear and Fox news. You are right about our artists and writers being part of the struggle and their voices were valued. I don’t see us valuing any person today. the labor unions became bloated and corrupt. They, too, need to get back to their roots – organize and be with the people they wish to represent.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:40 Guest
2:40
Harvey J Kaye: 

We must not become pessimistic and cynical – we are not alone! Our fellow citizens in the great majority want what we want, as progressives.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:40 Harvey J Kaye
2:41
Harvey J Kaye: 

We need to find ways of engaging their sense of what it means to be an American. I think the Left has failed to engage our imaginations.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:41 Harvey J Kaye
2:42
Harvey J Kaye: 

We have spent too much time “critiquing” and not enough time speaking of America’s radical democratic tradition.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:42 Harvey J Kaye
2:43
Harvey J Kaye: 

A tradition that stretches from Thomas Paine to the working men’s parties, to the Freethinkers, to the Women’s Rights advocates, to the Abolitionists, to the Suffragists, to the Populists, to the Progressives, to the Socialists, to Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Workers’ Rights. That’s a hell of a tradition!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:43 Harvey J Kaye
2:44
Harvey J Kaye: 

It’s that tradition that makes America great. In truth, that makes America exceptional. And we can redeem that tradition, we have so much experience to draw upon. The struggle starts now!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:44 Harvey J Kaye
2:44
[Comment From Cory L. Kemp:Cory L. Kemp:: ] 

As you have spoken of, Harvey, we stand on the receiving end of an historic arc. What interests me is shifting our perception, and with it, the dialogue, from fending off what is being done to us, to recognizing all that we have to work with because of those who came before us. Could you speak to how we might claim our personal and collective power, translate it into action that honors the legacy, and advances our own contribution to what comes next? (from website)

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:44 Cory L. Kemp:
2:45
Harvey J Kaye: 

We can’t rely simply on Presidents to change people’s perceptions. We need to hear more from Union leaders, Church leaders, Civil Rights Leaders…

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:45 Harvey J Kaye
2:45
Harvey J Kaye: 

And when we do, we need to hear them speak of American history, of the struggles that went into making America great.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:45 Harvey J Kaye
2:46
Harvey J Kaye: 

I believe Americans possess a sense of history that needs awakening. Of course, historians, liberal, progressive, radical, need to redeem that history as well.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:46 Harvey J Kaye
2:46
Harvey J Kaye: 

We need to speak as often as we can to our fellow citizens, not only to our colleagues. We need to cultivate Americans’ progressive memory.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:46 Harvey J Kaye
2:47
Harvey J Kaye: 

These are great questions – thank you!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:47 Harvey J Kaye
2:47
[Comment From StevenSteven: ] 

I find it especially appropriate to be having this chat today, since it is Passover. Do you see a connection between Passover and the Four Freedoms?

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:47 Steven
2:48
Harvey J Kaye: 

When I was writing the Fight for the Four Freedoms, I kept hearing not only FDR, not only a host of women and men from the Greatest Generation, but also lines from the Passover Seder.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:48 Harvey J Kaye
2:49
Harvey J Kaye: 

The Passover Seder calls on us to remember, it also calls on us to act, so let us indeed remember the words of FDR: the Four Freedoms – the fight for the Four Freedoms and let’s also remember the struggles of our parents and grandparents against injustices not only overseas but especially here at home in the 1930s.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:49 Harvey J Kaye
2:50
[Comment From StevenSteven: ] 

Go to a seder tonight and celebrate FREEDOM while remembering the struggle.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:50 Steven
2:51
Harvey J Kaye: 

We had our Seder last night. I was exhausted from traveling to DC and NY but I could not help but read the Four Questions – why is this night different from all other nights? Let’s make these days different from all other days.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:51 Harvey J Kaye
2:51
Moyers & Company: 

Great. I think we’ll leave it there, Harvey.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:51 Moyers & Company
2:51
Harvey J Kaye: 

Thank you – this was a pleasure. Indeed, it was fun.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:51 Harvey J Kaye
2:51
Moyers & Company: 

Thank you so much for joining us today!

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:51 Moyers & Company
2:51
Moyers & Company: 

And thank you to everyone for all the great questions and comments.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:51 Moyers & Company
2:53
Moyers & Company: 

If you’re interested in reading an excerpt from Harvey J. Kaye’s book, you can do that at BillMoyers.com:

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:53 Moyers & Company
2:53
Moyers & Company: 

https://billmoyers.com/2014/…

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:53 Moyers & Company
2:54
Moyers & Company: 

Again, the title of his book is The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:54 Moyers & Company
2:54
Moyers & Company: 

Take care, everyone! Good bye.

Tuesday April 15, 2014 2:54 Moyers & Company
 
 

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