We Hold These Truths (Radio Program) staring Jimmy Stewart written by Norman Corwin

We Hold These Truths, a celebration of the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the ratification of United States Bill of Rights, is an hour-long radio program that explored American values and aired live on December 15, 1941, just eight days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. It was written and produced by Norman Corwin and starred Jimmy Stewart, Edward Arnold, Lionel Barrymore, Bob Burns, Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Marjorie Main, Edward G. Robinson, Rudy Vallee, and Orson Welles, with concluding remarks by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The radio program had been commissioned by the United States government under the auspices of the Office of Education, and was scheduled for live broadcast on that date well before the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. When producer Corwin asked on December 7 whether the show was still on, the response wired to him the next day was, “The President thinks it’s more important now than ever to proceed with the program.” It was the first radio show to be broadcast on all four major radio networks. The message of this radio broadcast is more relevant today than it ever has been as the importance of the American Revolution, the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights seems to be fading by the second. Even though it is long, we hope that every American will take the time to listen and then share this and especially share this with the younger people of the United States as it seems we are slipping away from a country that fought for individual freedom, individual rights and personal responsibility into a country that believes in undeserved entitlements and government dictatorship control over their lives and the lives of others.