Abraham Lincoln

On this 4th of July weekend, I'd like to actually post a speech that Frederick Douglass gave about Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1876. I think it's in keeping with our election year and in keeping with one of the roles of a true patriot: to help our nation live up to its highest ideals. An excerpt first from the book "Douglass and Lincoln : how a revolutionary black leader and a reluctant liberator struggled to end slavery and save the Union" by Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick:

"In the most inciscive estimation of Lincoln that Douglass was ever to make, the speaker reminded his audience that at the time of the beginning of the war, abolitionists (including Douglass) had seen him as 'tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent,' but when Douglass measured him against the rest of the coutnry at the time, Lincoln was 'swift, zealous, radical, and determined.' Douglass now fully understood what Lincoln had gone through, balancing public opinion and justice.

In the end, Douglass's people had come to love this president, and for a simple reason: 'We came to the conclusion that the hour and the man of our redemption has somehow met in the person of Abraham Lincoln.'

As the Democratic primaries roll on and the fight for the nomination between Hillary and Barack becomes more strident, many people are rightfully worried about how the negative turn in the primaries may affect the eventual Democratic chances for winning the White House this coming Fall. I share some of that worry, but I also feel that the primaries are an important time to test the qualities of both Hillary and Obama to know if they have the political savvy to counter political attacks and push their message through to the American people. Other worthy Presidential candidates over the past 30 years have floundered because they did not have the political savvy to overcome sudden political crisis and controversies that drowned out their messages, intelligent and otherwise capable candidates like Gary Hart, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, and Joe Biden.

The negative campaigning of these recent weeks has cast a pall somewhat on both Obama and Hillary, but I personally think they're both good candidates, and think either would be better President than McCain, whom I respect but I disagree with on many issues. As the primaries have progressed these past couple of weeks, it seems like Obama and Hillary have opposite weaknesses.

Today at my church's service, we celebrated the veterans in our congregation. In the 8 o'clock service that I attended, we had veterans from World War II to the last Gulf War and we have a member who is serving right now in Afganistan. St. Thomas has many older members, and I had a chance to talk to a few of them after the service. We talked about Ken Burn's World War II series, and how that series really articulated how war should be talked about, from the ground level. One old person talked about how most of the veterans kept quiet about their experiences after they no longer had to fight, and that it was good to have documentaries like Ken Burn's War, because it's too easy to glorify war and to get caught up in that sort of rah-rah type patriotism. A woman who served in World War II told me that she really hoped that the soldiers come home from Iraq and Afganistan soon.