Character is Destiny
You cannot lead what you do not understand.
John M. Isaacson
It’s fair to say that prior to August 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was something of a dilettante, a pretentious man born into wealth who cared strongly about nothing in particular but had the good fortune to have the greatest last name in American politics. Ascending rapidly from New York State Senator in 1910 to Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913 to Vice Presidential candidate in 1920 at the mind-blowing age of 38, the rich, handsome and affable young chap from tony Hyde Park, NY who attended Harvard College and Columbia Law School had nothing but clear skies and open fields in front of him. The world for this talented yet arguably superficial fellow was his for the taking; all he had to do was ask for it.
Then came August 12, 1921.
Roosevelt and his wife and six children were vacationing at the ancestoral retreat on Campobello Island, New Brunswick. On the afternoon of August 9, he fell into the cold waters of the Bay of Fundy. He was chilled but otherwise okay. The next day, August 10, he and his three oldest children went sailing. They stopped to put out a fire on the island, which took several hours, and then jogged a few miles across Campobello Island to swim in Lake Glen Severn and the Bay. Roosevelt later said, ‘‘I didn’t get the usual reaction, the glow I’d expected.” He walked slowly back to the house, complained of a ‘‘slight case of lumbago,” felt ‘‘too tired even to dress’’ and had the chills. He climbed the stairs and retired early for the night. The next morning, one leg was weak, and Roosevelt had a temperature. A doctor was summoned, and he diagnosed that Roosevelt had a bad summer cold and should rest. Later that evening one leg was paralyzed and the other began to weaken.
By the following morning, August 12, Roosevelt woke up to discover that both of his legs were paralyzed. The world as he knew it is was over.
Winston Churchill later wrote of Roosevelt, “Not one man out of a hundred would have left the house again. Not one man out of a thousand would have entered politics. Not one man out of a million could have risen to the top of the great republic.” Roosevelt was Churchill’s kind of man, one with an indomitable spirit, a fearless imagination, and a daring passion to succeed.
No one is perfect, and every human being walking the planet has flaws, yet I firmly believe that character matters when you decide who you want your leaders to be. One of the reasons Roosevelt was Roosevelt was that he had to teach himself how to reenter the world, to literally pick himself up off the floor. Decades later, as president, FDR had to teach America how to rise up from an economic depression, to find the will to fight a war and engage with the entire world to destroy the demonic doctrines of evil.
Franklin Roosevelt was one person before August of 1921. He became another person after that. American writer, reporter and political commentator Walter Lippmann wrote in January 1932 about the Democratic presidential nominee, “(Roosevelt) is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.”
Days after his death in April 1945, the New York Times wrote, “Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now than Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House.”
In 2005, the late-Senator John McCain, with Mark Salter, published a book titled “Character is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember.” It is a collection of biographies about individuals from the past and present who, in McCain’s view, exemplify the best qualities of character: honor, purpose, strength, understanding, judgement, creativity and love. I highly recommend it, especially for those who wish to enter the public arena.
Character matters. Always has. Always will.