FDA Centennial Anthem

Words and Music by Gerald Harris ©2006 One century past, a people’s hope fulfilled By an act conceived for safe medicine and food Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed To life and liberty, to happiness pursued. We honor those who carried on before O’er these hundred years, public safety to secure For food, vaccines, drugs, devices, blood and more They strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure. In field and lab, in workplace far and near From both civilian and commissioned corps A call goes forth in this centennial year That this rich heritage continue evermore. Now in this proud hour, a vibrant vision thrives True to our mission, whate’er the challenge be With science our guide, we rededicate our lives To help create a future healthy, safe, and free. Comments on the Text to “FDA Centennial Anthem” Over my 35 years of being an FDA employee, I have often thought how fortunate I am to have found such rewarding work. This Centennial celebration, like any significant landmark in one’s life, is an appropriate time to pause from the day-to-day tasks and reflect on this larger issue of what it is about the FDA that has made this work both enjoyable and meaningful. In doing so, I was inspired, at the suggestion of co-worker Jeff Silberberg, to incorporate a favorite pastime of mine, music composition. I was led, by whatever muse that controls such things, to write a four-stanza anthem that commemorates this 100-year milestone. Here are my thoughts on the lyrics. Stanza 1: The Declaration of Independence recognizes the intrinsic rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and further asserts that a goal of government is to secure these basic rights. The circumstances leading to the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act are an example of a threat to the common good that fittingly was addressed by our government to protect these rights. Stanza 2: Dr. Harvey Wiley, the father of the 1906 Act and the FDA, his Bureau of Chemistry, and the early field inspectors set high standards for those who would follow in their footsteps. As the passing years brought additional responsibilities in setting up safeguards for foods, drugs, cosmetics, biologics, devices, and radiationemitting products, each new generation of FDA employees rose to the challenge, and as the fourth line sums up, “… strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure.” Stanza 3: Some years ago, a visitor from a foreign national measurement laboratory commented to me that he and his co-workers viewed the FDA as a “shining star” among government regulatory bodies. I took this compliment as a tribute to the quality and dedication of the FDA workforce. We have scientific and regulatory specialists including attorneys, biomedical scientists, dentists, engineers, information technology experts, investigators, mathematicians, nurses, physicians, therapists, and veterinarians, plus the allied staff that keep that agency running. Stanza 4: As we enter a second century of public service and consumer protection, our mission is as vital as ever. New challenges abound; nanomedicine, innovative combination products, and preparing for possible pandemics are but a few. In meeting these challenges, the application of scientific principles is essential. It is significant and reassuring that the FDA Mission Statement considers science-based information to be paramount in improving the nation’s health. In the closing line, I have expressed the feeling that we can create a future that is healthy, safe, and free: Healthy and safe, by virtue of the protections contained in the laws we implement to defend against tainted medical and consumer products; and free, in the sense of one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous Four Freedoms, the freedom from want.* President Roosevelt elaborated that this freedom embraces a healthy peacetime life for the world’s inhabitants. Gerald Harris, February 21, 2006 *In January 1941, in a speech before Congress urging moral and material support of our European allies during WWII, President Roosevelt delivered an eloquent message about four essential human freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of worship; the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.

Words and Music by Gerald Harris
©2006

One century past, a people’s hope fulfilled
By an act conceived for safe medicine and food
Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed
To life and liberty, to happiness pursued.

We honor those who carried on before
O’er these hundred years, public safety to secure
For food, vaccines, drugs, devices, blood and more
They strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure.

In field and lab, in workplace far and near
From both civilian and commissioned corps
A call goes forth in this centennial year
That this rich heritage continue evermore.

Now in this proud hour, a vibrant vision thrives
True to our mission, whate’er the challenge be
With science our guide, we rededicate our lives
To help create a future healthy, safe, and free.

rule

Comments on the Text to “FDA Centennial Anthem”

Over my 35 years of being an FDA employee, I have often thought how fortunate I am to have found such rewarding work.

This Centennial celebration, like any significant landmark in one’s life, is an appropriate time to pause from the day-to-day tasks and reflect on this larger issue of what it is about the FDA that has made this work both enjoyable and meaningful. In doing so, I was inspired, at the suggestion of co-worker Jeff Silberberg, to incorporate a favorite pastime of mine, music composition. I was led, by whatever muse that controls such things, to write a four-stanza anthem that commemorates this 100-year milestone. Here are my thoughts on the lyrics.

Stanza 1: The Declaration of Independence recognizes the intrinsic rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and further asserts that a goal of government is to secure these basic rights. The circumstances leading to the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act are an example of a threat to the common good that fittingly was addressed by our government to protect these rights.

Stanza 2: Dr. Harvey Wiley, the father of the 1906 Act and the FDA, his Bureau of Chemistry, and the early field inspectors set high standards for those who would follow in their footsteps. As the passing years brought additional responsibilities in setting up safeguards for foods, drugs, cosmetics, biologics, devices, and radiationemitting products, each new generation of FDA employees rose to the challenge, and as the fourth line sums up, “… strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure.”

Stanza 3: Some years ago, a visitor from a foreign national measurement laboratory commented to me that he and his co-workers viewed the FDA as a “shining star” among government regulatory bodies. I took this compliment as a tribute to the quality and dedication of the FDA workforce. We have scientific and regulatory specialists including attorneys, biomedical scientists, dentists, engineers, information technology experts, investigators, mathematicians, nurses, physicians, therapists, and veterinarians, plus the allied staff that keep that agency running.

Stanza 4: As we enter a second century of public service and consumer protection, our mission is as vital as ever. New challenges abound; nanomedicine, innovative combination products, and preparing for possible pandemics are but a few. In meeting these challenges, the application of scientific principles is essential. It is significant and reassuring that the FDA Mission Statement considers science-based information to be paramount in improving the nation’s health.

In the closing line, I have expressed the feeling that we can create a future that is healthy, safe, and free: Healthy and safe, by virtue of the protections contained in the laws we implement to defend against tainted medical and consumer products; and free, in the sense of one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous Four Freedoms, the freedom from want.* President Roosevelt elaborated that this freedom embraces a healthy peacetime life for the world’s inhabitants.

Gerald Harris, February 21, 2006
*In January 1941, in a speech before Congress urging moral and material support of our European allies during WWII, President Roosevelt delivered an eloquent message about four essential human freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of worship; the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.