MISSOURI COMMENTARY: HOW TO COMMEMORATE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT?

The memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt will be dedicated this week. There will be some controversy -- just as controversy was a delectable part of his life. How should his disability be treated? Should it be ignored as he, in life, devoutly wished it to be, or should it be forthrightly portrayed to show the greatness of one with the will to overcome?

It has taken over half a century for the country to figure what to do tangibly with Roosevelt's memory. He was the giant American figure of this century; yet he generated so much love and so much hate simultaneously.

He was charming, yet deceptive. He was a great political strategist, but a dubious political theorist. He wanted to be remembered as a budget balancer, but found the only way to cope with the Great Depression was to be a great spender. He was the prophet of the oppressed, but let his wife serve as his soul.

Just as people can remember where they were and what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was shot or when the Challenger Space Craft exploded, people of appropriate age can remember when they heard of Roosevelt's death. For many, he was the only president they really ever knew.

The pace to commemorate him in store was slow and tedious. The first, dubious political tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt was to ensure that there never would be another. After he was buried, Congress voted out and the states ratified the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution which placed a two term limit on the presidency.

The craftsmen of this constitutional change wanted to insure that Roosevelt's war-time leadership during his third term would never be chanced again. With revisionism at hand, one would have to conclude that the Allied cause in World War II would have fared just as well with John Nance Garner or James Farley in the White House.

It took 10 years for a commission to be established to determine the proper site and design for the Roosevelt Memorial. FDR wanted a simple, single stone, but with a dynamism and personality so hugely impacting American history, something more elaborate had to come.

The site is seven acres abutting the Tidal Basin, across from the Jefferson Memorial and in viewing distance of the Potomac River. In 1901, a master plan was finally completed for the Mall and Capital Hill area; and, in that plan, this particular site was reserved for "a great president." Roosevelt came along to fill this description. It will consist of granite walls, waterfalls and bronze sculptures that will depict the Roosevelt presidency. The size of the works and the overall layout will convey the mood and sense of a park rather than a soaring monument. Water will be a dominant element just as water was a dominant influence in his life. There will be the words of the man, in stone, but only two of the sculptures will be of him and neither will have him in a wheelchair.

When, at age 39, he first came down with polio, he thought that he might spend the rest of his life as a handicapped recluse. Encouraged by the determination and dynamism of his wife, Eleanor, and his political guru, Louis Howe, he struggled back into the political mainstream. Awkwardly, he walked with the assistance of his sons and others and with his legs locked into heavy metal braces.

He steadfastly refused to be photographed in a wheelchair. The press obeyed his wishes. Indeed, the press refrained from photographing him in any unflattering pose, for example, as he was being lifted on or off a train or in or out of an automobile.

The Park Service plans to have a replica of his wheelchairs and other artifacts depicting his disability on display in the Visitor's Center adjacent to the Memorial. "Tokenism" claim the spokespersons of the handicapped. They will protest at the dedication of his Memorial. This probably wouldn't displease Roosevelt all that much since he personally thrived on controversy and excitement.

It is unlikely that any future president will make it on or near the Mall. The World War II Memorial and the Black Patriots Memorial are already scheduled for Mall-associated sites and both of those already exceed the limits of the 1901 master plan.

If our nation is provided with yet another Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln or Roosevelt, he or she will have to be commemorated in less prestigious environs.

~Tom Eagleton of St. Louis is a former U.S. senator from Missouri.