"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

A house divided. He knew.

A very clever political tactician and strategist, solid leader, thoughtful, fine mind working well, above all compassionate, and richly deserving of the esteem in which he's held.

By the way, anyone who presumes to know what Lincoln would've thought or said about current political leadership is, without question, an ignoramus.

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
Barack Obama
Posted by elcidce90

What I See in Lincoln's Eyes

My favorite portrait of Lincoln comes from the end of his life. In it, Lincoln's face is as finely lined as a pressed flower. He appears frail, almost broken; his eyes, averted from the camera's lens, seem to contain a heartbreaking melancholy, as if he sees before him what the nation had so recently endured.

It would be a sorrowful picture except for the fact that Lincoln's mouth is turned ever so slightly into a smile. The smile doesn't negate the sorrow. But it alters tragedy into grace. It's as if this rough-faced, aging man has cast his gaze toward eternity and yet still cherishes his memories--of an imperfect world and its fleeting, sometimes terrible beauty. On trying days, the portrait, a reproduction of which hangs in my office, soothes me; it always asks me questions.

What is it about this man that can move us so profoundly? Some of it has to do with Lincoln's humble beginnings, which often speak to our own. When I moved to Illinois 20 years ago to work as a community organizer, I had no money in my pockets and didn't know a single soul. During my first six years in the state legislature, Democrats were in the minority, and I couldn't get a bill heard, much less passed. In my first race for Congress, I had my head handed to me. So when I, a black man with a funny name, born in Hawaii of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, it was hard to imagine a less likely scenario than that I would win--except, perhaps, for the one that allowed a child born in the backwoods of Kentucky with less than a year of formal education to end up as Illinois' greatest citizen and our nation's greatest President.

In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles. He also reminded me of a larger, fundamental element of American life--the enduring belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.

A connected idea attracts us to Lincoln: as we remake ourselves, we remake our surroundings. He didn't just talk or write or theorize. He split rail, fired rifles, tried cases and pushed for new bridges and roads and waterways. In his sheer energy, Lincoln captures a hunger in us to build and to innovate. It's a quality that can get us in trouble; we may be blind at times to the costs of progress. And yet, when I travel to other parts of the world, I remember that it is precisely such energy that sets us apart, a sense that there are no limits to the heights our nation might reach.

(continued...)

Still, as I look at his picture, it is the man and not the icon that speaks to me. I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator. As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice. Scholars tell us too that Lincoln wasn't immune from political considerations and that his temperament could be indecisive and morose.

But it is precisely those imperfections--and the painful self-awareness of those failings etched in every crease of his face and reflected in those haunted eyes--that make him so compelling. For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. He neither demonized the fathers and sons who did battle on the other side nor sought to diminish the terrible costs of his war. In the midst of slavery's dark storm and the complexities of governing a house divided, he somehow kept his moral compass pointed firm and true.

What I marvel at, what gives me such hope, is that this man could overcome depression, self-doubt and the constraints of biography and not only act decisively but retain his humanity. Like a figure from the Old Testament, he wandered the earth, making mistakes, loving his family but causing them pain, despairing over the course of events, trying to divine God's will. He did not know how things would turn out, but he did his best.

A few weeks ago, I spoke at the commencement at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. I stood in view of the spot where Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held one of their famous debates during their race for the U.S. Senate. The only way for Lincoln to get onto the podium was to squeeze his lanky frame through a window, whereupon he reportedly remarked, "At last I have finally gone through college." Waiting for the soon-to-be graduates to assemble, I thought that even as Lincoln lost that Senate race, his arguments that day would result, centuries later, in my occupying the same seat that he coveted. He may not have dreamed of that exact outcome. But I like to believe he would have appreciated the irony. Humor, ambiguity, complexity, compassion--all were part of his character. And as Lincoln called once upon the better angels of our nature, I believe that he is calling still, across the ages, to summon some measure of that character, the American character, in each of us today.

By the way, anyone who presumes to know what Lincoln would've thought or said about current political leadership is, without question, an ignoramus.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2010-02-12 10:45 AM | Reply | Flag:

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2010-02-12 10:48 AM | Reply | Flag: Doc Calls Obama an Ignoramus.

QED as you say.

Damn Doc, you just ruined Elcid's attempt to portray Obama as less than respectful of Lincoln.
To Elcid everything must be simplistic, black or white, no shades of gray or understanding of context is permissible.

By the way, anyone who presumes to know what Lincoln would've thought or said about current political leadership is, without question, an ignoramus.
#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2010-02-12 10:45 AM | Reply | Flag:

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2010-02-12 10:48 AM | Reply | Flag: Doc Calls Obama an Ignoramus.

QED as you say.
#5 | Posted by SHEEPLESHEPERD

Really? Where in the essay did Obama presume to know what Lincoln would've thought or said about current political leadership?

Oh, right, he didn't.

You'll have to wait just a sec while I mull over whether you get the "Fool" or "Stoopid" flag. Or perhaps I can stitch together the loser boy's trifecta banner you so richly deserve: "Fool - Stoopid - Ignorfuckinramus"

Except Sheeple, Obama's speech didn't pretend to know LIncoln's position of events of today, instead he talked about Lincoln's "calling still, across the ages, to summon some measure of that character, the American character, in each of us today."
That is not the same thing at all as pretending to know what position Lincoln would take today in relation to any of our controversies.

Danni, they seldom look before they leap.

Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2010-02-12 11:04 AM | Reply

Reread the last few sentences, rife with projection, the same projection you alluded to as the vestige of an ingnoramus, and to which I agree.

Thin skinned, aren't you Doc? Do you have some shortcoming for which you must project as an psuedo-intellectual on the internet?

No need to get defensive when someone agrees to you.

Damn Doc, you just ruined Elcid's attempt to portray Obama as less than respectful of Lincoln.
To Elcid everything must be simplistic, black or white, no shades of gray or understanding of context is permissible.

#6 | Posted by danni at 2010-02-12 11:02 AM | Reply | Flag:

Obama is less than respectful of everyone DANNI. Shades of gray? Funny coming from a mouthpiece of the left that you are. Change my mind - say one good thing about Reagan. Well, that won't change my mind, but I still challenge you.

Obama - ...and we got Mayor Ray Nagin in the house tonight....

Yeah, classy very classy. Calling him a great orator is like calling rap....music.

Booth did us a favor. Lincoln massacred the Constitution, leaving us with our present system that assumes the federal government has the power to regulate everything. Lincoln was also a racist who believed in shipping blacks back to Africa.
F*** the bastard.

-I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois" (September 18, 1858), pp. 145-146.

"I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects---certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. " The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois" (August 21, 1858), p. 16.

Reread the last few sentences, rife with projection, the same projection you alluded to as the vestige of an ingnoramus...
#10 | Posted by SHEEPLESHEPERD

Okeedohkee, let's do that, shall we? So, here they are (again):

Waiting for the soon-to-be graduates to assemble, I thought that even as Lincoln lost that Senate race, his arguments that day would result, centuries later, in my occupying the same seat that he coveted. He may not have dreamed of that exact outcome. But I like to believe he would have appreciated the irony. Humor, ambiguity, complexity, compassion--all were part of his character. And as Lincoln called once upon the better angels of our nature, I believe that he is calling still, across the ages, to summon some measure of that character, the American character, in each of us today.

Where, exactly, did Obama presume "to know what Lincoln would've thought or said about current political leadership"?

So, Sheeple, nothing to fear; you get to keep that trifecta flag. Don't apologize: you've earned it.

#12 | Posted by Diablo

You've got some competition, Sheeple.

#13 | Posted by Corky at 2010-02-12 11:23 AM | Reply | Flag:

Actions speak louder than words - except for Obama.

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

So, you've shown that you can quote from the Emancipation Proclamation. What's your point? I mean, in your own words (apologies to George Carlin).

Really, ElCidney..... a quote from the Proclamation is supposed to assuage Lincoln's direct quotes that support Obama's position?

I think not, sweetie.

#18 | Posted by Corky at 2010-02-12 12:30 PM | Reply | Flag:

He freed the slaves in the US. That act alone makes him the great Emancipator. If not him who does Obama think it is?

-He freed the slaves in the US. That act alone makes him the great Emancipator.

Opinions are like.... well, you know what they are like.

-If not him who does Obama think it is?

What? You mean there is an existing title of "Great Emancipator" out there that someone has to fill?

Perhaps Rush Limbaugh and Cookfish could share it for their work with Dominican boys?

Damn Cork. You really need to take a break. Your comments are getting plain old creepy stupid. LOL.

If you mean hitting too close to home, apparently ..... you are correct, sir!

If not him who does Obama think it is?

There is another "great emancipator" whose birthday is today. He didn't free slaves though, he freed minds (at least the minds that want to be free). Unlike Lincoln, that other great emancipator wasn't motivated by political or military expediency.

#23 | Posted by BluSky at 2010-02-12 02:00 PM | Reply | Flag:

Lorne Greene?

Could be Lorne Green.....could also be Ray Manzarak....or Ehud Barak....

#26 | POSTED BY BLUSKY

I wouldn't say Darwin "freed minds", although I see where you're going.
The minds you're referring to were already free, including Darwin's.
Remember, he was already a world-renowned naturalist long before "Origin" was published, and before the journey of the HMS Beagle.

Your National Geographic link brings up (again) the silly notion that somehow the very ideas of evolution and natural selection are automatically at odds with religion.....but in particular, here.