The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

      

NEW CANAAN, Conn.—I am glad that our military experts have not been anxious, at least up to now, to have our soldiers involved in the fighting in Lebanon. I think such action would lead to bitterness on the part of the Soviet Union.

The Soviets provide the materials with which other people may fight so that they can always say: "We are peace loving. We have no soldiers in the area where trouble is brewing."

We should be careful not to give the appearance of belligerency, but instead cooperate much more strongly with the United Nations in helping to provide the necessary protection for small nations such as Lebanon.

Lebanon has asked for a U.N. force to put down the rebellion which, of course, would mean adding to the present emergency troops. But we should be willing to pay more than our share of the expense for such a force, for thereby we would be meeting our commitments guaranteeing that no aggression will be tolerated on any country's borders.

I believe this situation points up the need for a permanent U.N. military police force which could be expanded at any moment at the request of the Secretary General.

It was natural that in Moscow the Russians should have staged a demonstration outside of the U.S. Embassy, inasmuch as Hungarian sympathizers with the 1956 revolution quite naturally staged a demonstration outside of the Soviet Embassy in New York. Fortunately, for the most part these have been peaceful demonstrations that have done little harm to persons or property.

I only hope that these incidents will impress upon governments like the Soviet-supported regime in Hungary that the world knows when people genuinely want more freedom and that this desire should be respected and accepted even if it varies somewhat from the dictatorship's pattern of the past.

All of us interested in the development of our country's beauty as well as its practical aspects should read the booklet "Planning and Community Appearance," which has just been put out by the Regional Plan Association.

There must be many people who deplore the fact that the entrance to our big cities, and even to our smaller ones, is often through the most unattractive streets and sometimes through slum areas.

In our earliest days settlements somehow were beautiful. Then trees were planted along city streets and rural highways, and some of these trees still shade us as we drive over the old country roads in New England and Virginia, where our ancestors used good taste in developing their communities. This has not always been true in more recent years.

Legislation is sometimes helpful in bringing about more attractive community planning. But it is sometimes harmful, too, so when we back legislation we should be sure that it furthers the ends we desire.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1958, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New Canaan (Conn., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 30, 1958

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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