Roosevent and Kennedy myths have been sold to America for 60 years. Let's begin to debunk them here, in 300 words. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" was from Thoreau. Sam Rosenman, a Roosevent ghost writer, first heard it in an English class at Columbia.

As founder of the American welfare state, F.D.R. had no idea what misery his "New Deal" would bring to America in later years, nor did he much care. An unprincipled man, he wasn't a deep thinker nor a student.

All he tried to do was appeal to the most voters. Here was a guy who affectionately referred to mass murderer Joseph Stalin as "Uncle Joe." He actually believed America could do business with this madman.

Before that, his people couldn't quite figure out Japan was a real threat to us, until it was too late. Now there's some real leadership!

Kennedy was fundamentally a party boy. We all know his old man had a chip on his shoulder and was obsessed with getting one of his boys into the White House. J.F.K. and his "Camelot" entourage soon proceeded to get us nearly blown up because Russians thought they were chumps.

They had a more reasonable opinion about Nixon and would not have tried the Cuban missile thing on him.

The caricatures of F.D.R. and J.F.K. are comely, while G.W. looks like an alien.

The propaganda continues unabated in Moore County in 2006.

Bill Schwenk

Southern Pines