Dr. Marty Feess presented several important American documents for Lifelong Learning Club members during an evening class at Fairway Recreation center. He listed a dozen initiatives of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, which perhaps inspired what Dr. Feess calls “theming the presidency.” 

Roosevelt’s New Deal included the Bank and Volstead Acts, farm mortgages, the Tennessee Valley Authority, homeowners financing and the legendary Work Progress Administration, which built libraries, schools, roads and sidewalks. The Civilian Conservation corps attracted a half million school drop outs from the ages of 15 to 24 who, for three meals a day and camp life, planted trees, made trails and improved American forests.

But many in Sun City remember FDR as the initiator of Social Security in 1935 and that program has fallen under new speculation with a newly elected administration.

Military spending was essential then, and later Dwight Eisenhower would caution to “guard against the ... influence of the military-industrial complex” and Ike said therein was “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power.” Part of FDR’s famous “four freedoms” speech included freedom of fear, which would result from a reduction of armaments  so that no nation anywhere will be in a position to commit an act of aggression against any neighbor.” Most learners thought about the current situation in the Middle East.

World War II’s documents included the GI bill, which promoted education so workers were more qualified and more skilled and interestingly; some documents were unknown by most Americans: the Navajo Code talkers, special Marines unit, developed a code which was “98% accurate and never broken.” Dr. Feess said while he couldn’t say the code won the war for America, he could say it contributed to the victory. Included among critical documents is the Civil Rights court case, Brown vs. the Board and Education and the continuing struggle that included Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham Jail.

Virtually everyone remembered “the New Frontier” and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s claim that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. Perhaps Dr. Feess heard JFK’s admonition to “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” because Dr. Feess and his wife Karen participated in the Peace Corps, a JFK initiative still operable.

Dr. Feess joins a number of instructors who donate their expertise to the Sun City Lifelong Learning Club, a Recreation Centers of Sun City chartered club. 

Email scazlifelong@gmail.com for more information.