The words of a leader matter for Americans

The 44 men who have served our nation as president have left behind a very uneven assortment of writings and speeches as they have sought in their own ways to lead our country.

In recent days I’ve found myself exploring this literature and sifting through my firsthand memories of our presidents’ speeches. Our presidents were not all gifted orators, but all of them had shining moments. Even George W. Bush, who was mightily challenged by our English language, left us with some sentences that were quite profound and uplifting.

The president on whom I’ve been dwelling the most is FDR. Here was a man who truly understood his office and the kind of leadership it required. He knew how to touch ordinary people, lift up a struggling nation and rally our spirits.

A prime example was the prayer he broadcast to the nation on the evening of June 6, 1944. Thankfully, it’s preserved in several places on the Internet. The prayer sprang from FDR’s great love of the King James Version of the Bible and the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

When FDR died on that terrible day (April 12, 1945) in Warm Springs, he left behind a speech that he was to deliver the following day. In it he exhorted all of us to live and work together in peace. He concluded, “Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” He was our uniter, encourager and leader to the very end.

It’s disheartening to experience the void in which we now live. There are no sounds of a unifying or encouraging spirit in our ears. Only anger, insults and small-minded rants delivered in the staccato of sentence fragments. Only words that are meant to drive us apart and cast us down. SANDY WYLIE Bella Vista