THE FOUR FREEDOMS

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THE FOUR FREEDOMS
On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address assured ALL citizens that there were four freedoms guaranteed to all.  Two of them are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution in the first amendment.  The four freedoms are:
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear

Those of us who are old enough to remember the Saturday Evening Post may remember the four Norman Rockwell paintings that adorned its’ magazine covers in February and March of 1943.
SO - - - 
Why is it that here in the 21st century in Century Village, West Palm Beach, Florida we are not able to enjoy what has been guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States?
Freedom of Speech – was denied to more than one individual at the Delegate Assembly meeting this past Friday.  Examples are – one person who was not even given the opportunity to speak at all; another who was interrupted mid-sentence and threatened with expulsion.  Is this the atmosphere in which you wish to live?  Are you not at all uncomfortable knowing that your words, your thoughts, your ideas cannot be heard at either an open meeting of the community or in its’ newspaper?  I know for sure that I am more than uncomfortable.  
Freedom from Fear – why should any individual who lives in this community tell another, I wanted to get up but I was afraid.  I didn’t want to be ridiculed or disrespected or booed or told to sit down.  I didn’t want to be threatened with expulsion.  Is this the atmosphere in which you wish to live?
And then here in the United States of America there is another freedom that is part of our society.  It’s called Freedom of Assembly.  And that my friends and neighbors is another Freedom that has been denied to some individuals in Century Village.  And why is that so?  Why should a resident of this community not be permitted to hold a meeting at the Clubhouse?  Why should a resident of this community have to hold meetings at the Library or at a house of worship when we have facilities available to us in our very own Clubhouse?  A Clubhouse for which we pay every single cent of the expenses including salaries and benefits for all of the employees and let us not forget the fact that we pay RENT in addition to the expenses. 

If you feel as I do it is important that you make yourself heard.  Write letters to the UCO Reporter, make telephone calls to the UCO office 683-9189, attend Committee meetings at the UCO office just outside the Okeechobee Blvd. gate, and perhaps most important of all, ATTEND THE DELEGATE ASSEMBLY MEETINGS and speak to and vote on the issues that are presented.    
Dorothy Tetro