This week marked the 75th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Her disappearance has remained an enduring mystery to this day.
In November of 1936 Earhart wrote a letter to FDR detailing her upcoming around the world flight and asking for assistance from the Navy. Her letter can be found on the FDR Day by Day Timeline.
Last seen taking off from New Guinea to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, it is believed that Ameila and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have landed on a reef near the Kiribati atoll of Nikumaroro. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery along with a team of scientists, historians and salvagers, is resuming the search for the wreckage Earhart’s Lockheed Electra plane in the nearby waters of Kiribati.
If I wanted to know more about Amelia Earhart, I would Google her name — and all sorts of fascinating things would pop up.
But I come to the FDR Library blog to learn about FDR.
While the letters others wrote to him can be interesting, posting the letters FDR wrote to others would better serve the purpose of the FDR Library.
You see, I have always thought the purpose of the FDR Library was and is to inform people about FDR, his life, his presidency, his legacy.
I don’t go to the Reagan Library blog or website because I really don’t care to know any more than I already do about Ronald Reagan, BUT I would bet that if I went to that blog (or website) I would NOT find them posting letters TO Reagan but more likely letters he wrote.
There is a well-financed rightwing effort going on to diminish the legacy and reputation of FDR so that Reagan can climb in the polls. Every TV program about Reagan glosses over his errors and sins and magnifies — even exaggerates — his positive qualities.
I do not understand why the efforts of the FDR Library staff to inform the public about FDR are so feeble.