The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, one of Washington's newest, has proven to be very popular. In a series of statues and plaques it tells the story of the FDR years from the Great Depression through World War II. Controversy arose over the depiction of FDR in his wheelchair, and recently a decision was made to add a portrayal of the President in his chair as a testimony to what can be accomplished by supposedly handicapped people.

The Roosevelt Memorial has proven to be appropriately controversial, as was its subject. Stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, Roosevelt never recovered his ability to walk unaided, yet he lived a vigorous, often strenuous life and served as President from March 1933 until April 1945. During all that time few people knew of his infirmity, reporters and photographers never revealing to the public, although most were themselves aware, that he was virtually bound to a wheelchair. The latest controversy has swirled around the issue of whether he ought tobe portrayed in a wheelchair, and at this writing a plan exists to add a scene with FDR thus shown some time in the future. The statue shown above is clearly ambiguous on his conditio--seated, but with no evidence of his disease.