William J. Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

Traveling Postcard US-2452513 to Ukraine shows the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, which  includes the Clinton Presidential Library, the offices of the Clinton Foundation, and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

It is located on a 69,000-square-meter or 17-acre land by the Arkansas River and Interstate 30. The main building extends towards the Arkansas River, exemplifying Clinton's campaign promise of "building a bridge to the 21st century." The Clinton Presidential Center was dedicated nine years ago on November 18, 2004. The 1899 Rock Island Railroad Bridge across the Arkansas River, shown on the left of the postcard, was originally leading to Choctaw Station. It has been converted into a pedestrian bridge connecting to North Little Rock and renamed as the Clinton Park Bridge. The dedication ceremony was held on September 30, 2011, and the bridge was opened to the public on October 2, 2011.

The photo on the postcard was taken on April 10, 2006 When I was driving cross-country from West Palm Beach to Las Vegas. The postcard, mailed along with more than a dozen other cards including some private swaps, has traveled more than 30 days. All those cards mailed on that day appear lost in the mail, since none of the cards was received. I am in the process of  re-sending the replacement. So far, one replacement card was received. Unfortunately, some of those postcards are unique and do not have duplicates.

The Four Freedoms - Freedom of Speech

Postcard US-2402743 arrived with many autographs from those who attended the Arkansas Meet Up in Little Rock, AR on September 7, 2013.

The postcard features a painting "Freedom of Speech", one of the four scenes of American daily life by illustrator Norman Rockwell, inspired by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address on January 6, 1941. President Roosevelt declared four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: Freedom of speech; Freedom of worship; Freedom from want; Freedom from fear.

On the twelfth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and just after the nation stepped back from an imminent military conflict with Syria, we can appreciate more the meanings of the freedoms and understand how to protect them.

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear -which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."