(Editor's note: This is the last in a series on Norman Rockwells paintings known as the "Four Freedoms)

The fourth and final freedom in this series on Norman Rockwells well-loved paintings is Freedom from Fear.

Once again, considering the time in which Rockwells paintings were first published, as we fought a World War against the terror of Nazi Germany, the importance of this freedom was apparent.

The Nazis and their partner in crime, the imperial forces of Japan, had initiated a campaign against humanity that even today shocks the conscience. In Europe, the Nazis and their collaborators sought to systematically annihilate an entire race and creed through the Holocaust. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Japanese engaged in acts of torture and oppression, from the Bataan Death March to their systematic attempted destruction of whole cities.

Though by early 1943 when Rockwells paintings were widely published, the tide was turning against these forces of evil, the fear of their threat was very much alive in the minds of most Americans.

Franklin Roosevelts speech inspiring Rockwells Four Freedom paintings, rang loud and clear in identifying the importance of a Freedom from Fear.

Some would today reasonably argue that fear can be a good thing. Parents teach their children to be fearful of strangers who may be up to no good. Fear of inherently dangerous activities, like jumping off a bridge or swimming in treacherous waters, likewise makes sense.

But fear also can paralyze us from needed action or result in dangerous overreaction, as when we feel trapped or threatened and thus lash out at whatever is nearest to us.

Fear was no stranger to FDR. In 1921 at age 39, he contracted polio which left him largely paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. Crippled, as some people viewed him, and sidelined from a promising political career, Roosevelt could have given in to the fear of disappointment or rejection. Instead, he resolutely fought back against his illness and, in overcoming his fear, helped the nation to overcome its own fears by leading us out of the Great Depression and towards winning World War II.

It is no coincidence that in FDRs first inaugural address, perhaps the best remembered phrase is, We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

Today, fear again abounds. Of terrorism from radical so-called Islamic or Christian groups. Of rapid change that threatens values weve long known and embraced. Of new ideas that seem strange, or old ideas that somehow seem hostile now.

But Roosevelt and Rockwell remind us that, as in their times, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Fighting fear with strength and understanding attacks the very root of fear and replaces it with confidence and hope. It likewise conquers the despair that accompanies fear with a generous and resurgent optimism that represents the best of what unites us as Americans.

The Four Freedoms Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear: these represent the greatest aspiration of our American experience. And they provide a living challenge for our own time to live up to the legacy our forebears left us, in leaving a better land and world behind for those who follow.

Mark W. Schwiebert, an attorney, served as mayor of Rock Island for 20 years.

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Freedom from Fear essential in US today - Quad-Cities Online