FDR’s Disability

On the matter of depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt in a wheelchair, I agree with George Will (Commentary, May 9) on the “whereas” but disagree on the “therefore.”

FDR did not spend his life in a wheelchair. He did not even own a conventional wheelchair. He had an ordinary straight-backed wooden chair fitted with little wheels at the tips of its legs so that he could move easily from room to room. Then he was lifted onto a comfortable chair, sofa, or whatever--even into an auto- mobile.

To express a message by depicting what was never true would be worse than failing to address the message. With what we know now, the message lies in his standing with one arm on his naval aide’s arm, and a cane in his other hand, helplessly immobile but not fazed an iota. I do not want to see him sitting in a wheelchair, because he didn’t.

GILBERT S. BAHN

Moorpark

* Fact: FDR contracted polio in August 1921 and was a paraplegic from that time forward.

Fact: He was mobile with the use of a wheelchair or 10 pounds of steel braces attached to his legs.

Fact: The American people knew this, and despite the suffering endured during the Depres- sion/WWII years, they had class enough to overlook this reality, and never mentioned it seriously. Even the media had class in those days and didn’t publicize FDR’s infirmity.

Fact: He smoked, and his long cigarette holder attached to his infectious grin tacked onto his jutting jawline became a standard and beloved caricature that made him instantly recognizable.

To portray FDR in any way except as he was, truly with reality, is slanderous; to cast his uniqueness as bad example or as less than heroic is traitorous to all his accomplishments; to seek to sanitize his memory in the cause of intimidation and manipulation of hidden agendas is beneath contempt.

JAMES A. TAKACS

Tarzana