Strong Leaders Accept Fear

On this the 72nd anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Date Which Will Live in Infamy speech, I cannot help but try to connect him to the great leader of Nelson Mandela whose life the world is currently celebrating.  A common thread that I have seen on television and the internet is the public asking politicians and all leaders to learn from the life Mandela.  In my opinion, it has not been since FDR have we had a President so deeply appreciated as to make any connection to the role made by Mandela in South Africa.   Roosevelt grew up a wealthy white American while Mandela an oppressed villager, but through education both rose to completely change the path of their nation.  Both faced obstacles whether it was the confinement to a wheel chair or an actual prison, but both accepted fear and used it to inspire others. 

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin Roosevelt

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html#1Sj4GKZQewFESYBK.99

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html#1Sj4GKZQewFESYBK.99

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” - Nelson Mandela


Click Here to listen to the Dec. 8th, 1941 speech (courtesy of the National Archives) made via the radio by Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Three and half hours later he would sign the declaration of war.