Reading Now: Since Yesterday

An op-ed from a few months ago was interesting enough to land Since Yesterday on my reading list.  To my surprise the local library branch had a copy, which is now in my hands.

I'm reading it to get a sense of how we've changed since then, and how we have not.

I liked this passage, on FDR's inauguration speech:

You can turn off the radio now.  You have heard what you wanted to hear.  This man sounds no longer cautious, evasive.  For he has seen that a tortured and bewildered people want to throw overboard the old and welcome something new; that they are sick of waiting, they want somebody who will fight this Depression for them and with them;  they want leadership, the thrill of bold decisions.  And not only in his words but in the challenge of the very accents of his voice he has promised them what they want.

I feel the appeal of these sentiments, but I could also see them leading a nation to a really bad place.  Magnificent and terrifying...