I was looking for another December 7th story from my Dear Miss Breed manuscript. What I found is a clipping Clara Breed saved, from Eleanor Roosevelt's newspaper column, MY DAY.

If only we had more Eleanor Roosevelts in our world today! This is what she wrote soon after December 7th...

“… the great mass of our people, stemming from these various national ties, must not feel that they have suddenly ceased to be Americans.

“This is, perhaps, the greatest test this country has ever met. Perhaps it is the test which is going to show whether the United States can furnish a pattern for the rest of the world for the future. Our citizens come from all the nations of the world. Some of us have said from time to time, that we were the only proof that different nationalities could live together in peace and understanding, each bringing his own contribution, different though it may be, to the final unity which is the United States…Perhaps, on us today, lies the obligation to prove that such a vision may be a practical possibility.

“If we can not meet the challenge of fairness to our citizens of every nationality, of really believing in the Bill of Rights and making it a reality for all loyal American citizens, regardless of race, creed or color; if we can not keep in check anti-Semitism, anti-racial feelings as well as anti-religious feelings, then we shall have removed from the world, the one real hope for the future on which all humanity must now rely.” -E.R.