Courage and Fearlessness

When Uncle Franklin said in his first inaugural address that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, he defined his own attitude as well as that of his wife.
    He was called "Happy Warrior" as he led our country our of the Great Depression and through the Second World War.  He was insouciant about his own vulnerability.  He liked to campaign in his open touring car, sitting in the backseat waving his misshapen, weather-worn fedora to an enthusiastic public.   
    He liked to feel close to his countrymen and resisted hiding behind bulletproof glass.  Even after an assassination attempt in Florida, he resisted what he considered to be overprotection and went right on challenging his guardians.  If the Secret Service thought their president was a difficult subject to protect, they had a worse time with his wife.
    My aunt devoted her life to her father's admonition to improve the lives of those less fortunate than herself, and she seemed not to care if something happened to her in the process.  She said she didn't have time to worry about safety and didn't want a bodyguard getting in her way as she traveled alone in the world.  (Later, she relented and did hire protection.)  During the war, in Red Cross uniform, she traveled throughout the Pacific to see and encourage our troops.  "Top Brass" was at first opposed to the idea but changed their minds when they recognized the enthusiasm of our troops.  During that tour, she lost thirty pounds.
    But sometimes Aunt Eleanor seemed like a fatalist to me, as though she didn't have a sense of somebody to live for.  In any case, she was certainly brave.  Her attitude was just to get out there and do it anyway.
    One of the subjects of discussion at White House meals was whether she should accept some of the many invitations she received to speak in favor of desegregation in the southern states, where segregation was still an accepted fact.
    She wanted to go down there and talk about her strong belief that we are all equal citizens of a great democracy.  It took messages from Cabinet members, besides the impassioned pleas of the Secret Service, to dissuade her from most of the invitations.
    Admirable white people went to the South in those years to help black people fight for their civil rights.  Many of the white people suffered financially because the white southerners wouldn't hire them, and most of the black people weren't in a position to employ them.  With her earnings from lecture tours, Aunt Eleanor helped many among them whom she knew were sincere and in need of assistance.
    She did manage to escape to the South herself.  One event that caused panic in the White House was when she drove alone through the hills in the dark and rain to meet with a group of black people.  She said later that the possibility of encountering the KKK--which had a bounty on her head--just hadn't occurred to her.  But it would not have stopped her in any case.
    After that night, the Secret Service insisted that she carry a gun, and she reluctantly agreed, tossing it into the glove compartment of her car.  She knew she would never use it, however, and several months later got rid of it.
    She strove to change hearts and minds through example.  During another visit to the South, in an auditorium where blacks were seated on one side of the center aisle and whites on the other, she simply took her chair and set it in the aisle itself, so that she could be seated in the middle.