It's a scorcher today, 90 degrees. I love it. Everything is soooo green and lush. We drove to Hyde Park, NY down the Taconic Parkway with the glorious Catskill Mountains off to our west. FDR's library was our destination. We had been there in June to see the home and museum, but the library was closed for renovation. The renovated library is very nice, beautifully captures FDR's personality and the period. Boy, how I wish we had a politician like him again. I think Bill Clinton came close to having FDR's empathy. Of course, FDR had a Congress of his own party that backed his efforts. There is so much today that echoes his era: extreme disparity in wealth, efforts to undermine and extinguish social programs by business. After, we drove over to Val-Kill. It was closed but we could walk the property. I am as much interested in Eleanor as Wayne is in FDR. She was such a strong and caring person. I find both of them amazing in their ability to empathize with the disenfranchised when they came from such privileged beginnings.
