In his letter regarding the picture of Franklin D. Roosevelt in a wheelchair (BDN, Jan. 18), Charles Bridges was shocked and angered that the Bangor Daily News chose to show Roosevelt in a way that he had never been privileged to see. I am shocked that he would look at FDR in a different light merely because he was in a wheelchair and that it was something shameful.

Fortunately, in the past few decades the bulk of us have learned that people with disabilities and challenges can be great leaders and help the world be a better place, despite their “misfortunes.”

Roosevelt did a lot of wonderful things for our country. Unfortunately, he lived at a time when having polio and being wheelchair bound was something to hide, a truth manifested to us by how few pictures there are of him in a wheelchair.

How sad it is that Roosevelt had to go to such lengths to hide the very thing that probably made him the outstanding person he was.

I’m grateful that disabilities have lost some of their stigma and that the press is free to photograph the real thing.

Jane Newcomb

Owls Head