When President Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1933, he faced a nation in deep crisis, in the midst of a deep depression the likes of which the nation, and the world, had never seen. Industry had collapsed, banks had closed, workers lost jobs, and families were hungry.

People were angry, hurt, and confused. Many could no longer recognize the America they had come to believe in. And the political system seemed to not have the answer to America’s troubles. There was a great fear that hung over the nation — not unlike the fear that one can sense in our body politic today.

In his address to the nation on that cold and grey March day, FDR addressed America’s fears in a quintessentially American way. He told the nation, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” To answer the fear that gripped America in that fateful time, Roosevelt offered hope.

Too often in this campaign year, we have seen our political visions narrowed to competing versions of fear. We could use, instead, competing visions of hope.

Roosevelt told America on that day in March, “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.” He believed in the promise and in the potential of a great nation. And he made the rest of the nation believe with him.

The America that rose from the depths of the Depression, that helped lead the world through a devastating global war, and which has inspired so many, in so many ways, has not, and will not disappear. It is not gone. It is not past. It has a future, and I do believe it will endure, revive and prosper, if we but can answer our fears, not with fear itself, but with hope.

Thomas S. Edwards

Waterville