President Lincoln Pays Bethlehem a Visit

Kendall Bolden, age 4, and Avery Bolden, age 7, meet Abraham Lincoln

About thirty kids were amazed on May 10 when our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, dropped in on the Bethlehem Public Library for a visit. He does like to read. He likes to tell stories, too, and regaled everyone with tales from his own childhood. He also spoke about his ascent to our nation's highest office during the Civil War. That came with the help of Pennsylvania, which voted for him twice.

After his presentation, Abe was peppered with questions from many fascinated kids, fueled by pretzels and cookies supplied by the library. One asked why Americans really had to fight each other. Though he tried, even Lincoln was unable to answer that question.

Asked how tall he was when "fully grown," Lincoln responded that he was 6'4", but he's shrunk since then. "We're downsizing," he quipped.

Finally, one boy wanted to know whether Lincoln really hunted vampires.

Thanks to a grant from Northampton Community College, Lincoln was portrayed by Jim Getty, who just happens to live in Gettysburg.

The Poet President & The Radical

Vonnegut called him our Poet President. To me, he is mankind's greatest achievement after Jesus Christ. I refer, of course, to Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President. Everyone who came after him would agree he's a tough act to follow. Yet now more than ever, the people in our federal and state legislatures would do well to follow his lead. Since it's pretty obvious that few of them actually read books, I'd recommend they take a break between fundraising dinners to see Speilberg's Lincoln, which was released last week. I'd also recommend it to the numerous lever pullers and partisans, left and right, who think they know everything. They might learn they don't.

Spielberg's Lincoln is supposed to be based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. Her title refers to Lincoln's cabinet, most of whose members considered his election a colossal mistake. Some of them, like Secretary of War Stanton, snubbed him as a lawyer many years before, laughing at his tattered clothing. They called him an ape, a gorilla. But these same cabinet members slowly realized that Lincoln was just the man our fractured country needed. When our Poet President was cut down by a gunshot wound, it is Stanton who announced, "Now he belongs to the ages."

Even as President, Lincoln was snubbed. He once paid a late-night visit to General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, to discuss strategy. McClellan was out, so Lincoln waited, stovepipe hat in hand. When McClellan returned home, Lincoln waited another half hour until a porter came to tell him that the General had retired for the evening.

Lincoln took no disciplinary action. He was used to being snubbed. His was a life of hardship, what he himself would call the "short and simple annals of the poor." In his youth, he lost his mother and sister to illness. As a young man, his first love died as a result of illness as well, nearly driving him to suicide. And as a father, he saw two sons die.

In the movie, you see little of Lincoln's interesting and evolving relationship with his cabinet. You only see glimpses of the deep depressions he often suffered. You see little of the abuse he endured from his mentally unstable wife, who did love him. What you do see in detail is his relationship with a divided House. Just the year before, its members refused to adopt a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery. But Lincoln considered that crucial, and he wanted bi-partisan support.

The House's biggest proponent for abolition of slavery was Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvanian from Lancaster. He was an unbending radical, a man ahead of his times. It is Stevens who, here in Pennsylvania, successfully defended a law providing for public education when it was certain to fail. It is Stevens who believed our differences are a cause for celebration, not intolerance.

But Stevens, like most draped in self-righteousness, was also very divisive. Lincoln was worried that this great orator might inflame some House Democrats who would otherwise support abolition.

Lincoln and Stevens discuss this, at least in the movie. Stevens assures Lincoln that a compass will always point true north. Lincoln agrees but tells Stevens that a compass won't tell you about the swamps between you and north.

If you don't avoid the swamps, what's the use of knowing true north, asks the President.

Stevens took Lincoln's warning to heart and moderated his commentary in the House debate that followed, to the chagrin of Democrats attempting to bait him.

Lincoln eventually got his bi-partisan support. The House adopted a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery. Black men are free.

Because it's not enough to know true north.

This is a lesson that both President Obama and House Republicans should take to heart. It's a lesson for us all.

Happy Birthday to the Poet President

He was a "war president." In fact, the war over which he presided may have claimed more American lives than all other wars combined. But he's not remembered that way.

He was the poet president. The man with the kind yet sad smile. He hated the killing business. Though born and raised in the frontier, he never hunted or fished, not even as a boy. Religious revivals were all the rage, but he never joined a church. In a wilderness full of tobacco and whiskey, he neither smoked nor drank. As a Captain during the Black Hawk War, the only time he risked his life was to save an old Indian who had stumbled into his men's camp. But he told great stories, so he was forgiven his imperfections.

To his generals' dismay, he had an annoying habit of pardoning young men who fell asleep on sentry duty or who deserted. "If Almighty God gives a man a cowardly pair of legs how can he help their running away with him?" He often asked whether a "soldier can better serve the country dead than living."

Happy birthday, Abe. The country misses you.

Lincoln was a Republican, but his was no party of oppression or imperialism. Iraq (and Iran) would have no appeal to him. Here's what Kurt Vonnegut thinks.

[I]t is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln in a speech about something or somebody else. He always steals the show. I am about to quote him.

Lincoln was only a Congressman when he said in 1848 what I am about to echo. He was heartbroken and humiliated by our war on Mexico, which had never attacked us.

We were making California our own, and a lot of other people and properties, and doing it as though butchering Mexican soldiers who were only defending their homeland against invaders wasn’t murder.

What other stuff besides California? Well, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

The person congressman Lincoln had in mind when he said what he said was James Polk, our president at the time. Abraham Lincoln said of Polk, his president, our armed forces’ commander-in-chief: "Trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood — that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged into war."

Holy smokes! I almost said, "Holy shit!" And I thought I was a writer!

"Now he belongs to the ages."

What Sarah Palin and Barack Obama Have in Common

On the surface, you'd think Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have little in common. Obama's impeccable academic credentials include Columbia and Harvard Law. Palin attended far less prestigious schools, bouncing through four different colleges before getting a journalism degree. Obama started his public life as a community organizer while Palin was a sports reporter. One is black who leans left while the other is a very conservative self-described hockey mom. But as different as they are, both have been victimized by outrageous rumors.

Within hours of being named as McCain's VP running mate, Palin was savaged at Daily Kos with the absurdly reckless allegation that she had faked her pregnancy. Obama was victimized by so many palpably false smears that he had to set up a web page to counter them.

Both candidates bring out the worse in people who simply aren't ready for a black or woman. Both are from outside the Beltway and obviously lack the experience to really screw things up.

Not that long ago, this country had a presidential candidate who was also dismissed as totally inexperienced. His election was accidental because there were two Democrats running against each other. He was an outsider with an unusual accent and high-pitched voice. All the power players felt he'd be little more than a puppet.

That person's name was Abraham Lincoln.

Happy Birthday to The Poet President

He was a "war president." In fact, the war over which he presided may have claimed more American lives than all other wars combined. But he's not remembered that way. You wouldn't catch him strutting around in a flight suit.

He was the poet president. The man with the kind yet sad smile. And he hated the killing business. Though born and raised in the frontier, he never hunted, not even as a boy. He'd give Dick Cheney a raincheck. Although religious revivals were all the rage, he never joined a church. He'd give Pat Robertson a raincheck, too.

To his generals' dismay, he had an annoying habit of pardoning young men who fell asleep on sentry duty or who deserted. "If Almighty God gives a man a cowardly pair of legs how can he help their running away with him?" He often asked whether a "soldier can better serve the country dead than living."

Happy birthday, Abe. The country misses you.

Lincoln was a Republican, but his was no party of oppression. erialism. Iraq (and Iran) would have no appeal to him. Here's what Kurt Vonnegut thinks.

[I]t is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln in a speech about something or somebody else. He always steals the show. I am about to quote him.

Lincoln was only a Congressman when he said in 1848 what I am about to echo. He was heartbroken and humiliated by our war on Mexico, which had never attacked us.

We were making California our own, and a lot of other people and properties, and doing it as though butchering Mexican soldiers who were only defending their homeland against invaders wasn’t murder.

What other stuff besides California? Well, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

The person congressman Lincoln had in mind when he said what he said was James Polk, our president at the time. Abraham Lincoln said of Polk, his president, our armed forces’ commander-in-chief: "Trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood — that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged into war."

Holy smokes! I almost said, "Holy shit!" And I thought I was a writer!

"Now he belongs to the ages."

War, Patriotism & Religious Fervor

"My concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God's side."
Abraham Lincoln

I live in Nazareth, Pa. You can call me Bernie of Nazareth. It's a quiet little town, mostly white, and was originally settled by Moravians, our nation's first communists. They had "love feasts" and promoted tolerance by requiring gender segregation, although that didn't last long. Over the years, Nazareth has morphed into a town very much like any other Northeastern town, where neighbors don't know or speak to each other, and we awake each morning to a fresh layer of cement dust. There could be more black people than I think, but it's hard to tell with all that cement dust.

On my way home from work on election night, I saw something you never see in sleepy Nazareth - a spontaneous demonstration. A group of people at Broad & Belvidere proudly displayed Bush signs that read, "Vote God's way, not man's way." On the opposite side of the street, a lone couple countered with one Kerry sign. An active Kerry supporter, I stopped my Jeep and joined in the fun. Numbers on both sides grew as the evening progressed until demonstrators occupied all 4 corners of the intersection.

The original Kerry supporters, it develops, were carpetbaggers who had come down from Manhattan for the day to tell us how to vote, but they soon left for Starbucks and were replaced by lots of local residents, mostly high school kids and young and slightly inebriated adults. (We were outside of a bar). The Bush group manning one of the corners with the God signs were part of some youth prayer group. They condescendingly told us we needed to read Scripture when we told them Jesus was a liberal. They also called Kerry a murderer although he hasn't killed 100,000 Iraqi woman and children. One of the anointed, a big burly guy, crossed the street, called me a "faggot," and then hopped in his car to speed off without leaving his phone number. And a male member of God's club told a female Kerry supporter to suck his dick. Haven't seen that expression in Scripture, although I've read a phrase or two about faggots. Yikes! I have to stop wearing those flashy socks.

My conclusion was that this group of nuts is marginal, borderline insane, and could actually damage Bush's candidacy. What sane person is going to listen seriously to homophobic rants about gay marriage, or as Margartet Cho says, al Gayda? Turns out that 51% of us listened. Bush even won in love feast Nazareth by 9 votes. His appeal to "family values" and that kind of stuff are supposed to be what did the trick. The only groups who roundly rejected him were al Gayda, young white males, who could get their heads blown off by an IED in Iraq, and blacks of any age or sex, who could get their heads blown off by an IED in Iraq or anywhere in the deep south.

Some of these religious wingnuts have gone public, telling us "the liberal Democrats oppose God's will" and that "Jesus speaks through the Republicans. The Democrats will not be able to win elections until they renounce their sinful ways and stop encouraging abortions, gayness, and trying to take away our guns." Gayness? What the hell is gayness?

In Alabama, the "Christian" coalition and Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore successfully killed amendments to the state constitution that would ban segregation and poll taxes. So in addition to homophobia, bigotry is another of the family values being promoted in the name of God.

What the hell could God be thinking?

Guys like O'Reilly, the phone sex addict, and Newt Gingrich, who dumped his second wife for a much younger model, say liberals have no family values and mainstream American is fed up with our bullshit. I'm pretty liberal. I respect a woman's right to choose and don't mind if two gay gals or guys want to call themselves "married." Knock yourselves out, I say! I don't like it when we start a war to grab what's left of our fossil fuels, and I don't go to church. The last time I went was Palm Sunday so that I could give my 4 yr. old grandson some exposure to religion. I had forgotten Palm Sunday is the longest mass for the entire year and almost died of old age. On my way out, I noticed all kinds of brochures in the back. They were checklists telling people how God wants them to vote in the primaries.

People who go to church all the time claim to know God pretty well. I do go to a diner every Sunday in Nazareth where churchgoers eat after worshiping. I bask in their auras and hope some of their goodness rubs off on me. I was there with my grandson on the Sunday after the election, and we were treating ourselves to pancakes. The very next table was occupied by four of the Chosen Ones. (They didn't have an aura, but wore their finest clothing). I could overhear bits and pieces of their conversation as my grandson and I gave each other goofy looks. Didn't hear God mentioned too much, but I heard a hell of a lot about Falluja. A nicely dressed old lady opened her mouth, and as toast crumbs fell to the floor and all over her, she angrily insisted Bush had waited long enough and we need to go in and level that city now. Her three breakfast companions gave a few "Amens" and pieces of bacon and scrambled eggs fell from their mouths. "Turn it into a parking lot!" I don't hear anything about the innocents who would be killed, but these folks didn't seem too concerned about "collateral" damage. I wanted to say, "Wake up!" "Don't you know you're promoting the loss of innocent life?" Something pompous like that. But heh, it's Sunday, and I guess these folks are entitled to be left in peace.

Later that day, I checked the news on the "Internets." Holy shit! Those religious people at the diner had it right! First, I read an account from AP that US troops had gone into Falluja and "secured" the main hospital, but would not allow doctors inside because they will tell reporters about the civilian casualties. Better to let them die. Then I read another account from BBC reporting that US forces had completely razed another hospital, run by an Islamic charity, with "precision" weapons like WWII era howitzers. And before they started Operation Whatever, a bunch of evangelical Marines actually dressed up like Gladiators, anointed themselves with oil (there goes some more fossil fuel), and actually compared themselves to David facing Goliath. I'm not seeing that analogy. To make matters worse, I heard Pat Robertson on Fox telling everyone that it's so wonderful we've finally attacked Falluja, and he didn't express any concerns about the loss of innocent life or the Geneva conventions that prohibit attacks on hospitals. No one seems to care that soldiers refused to allow males to leave the city in advance. How is this different from what the Wehrmact did to Warsaw or what Romans did regularly to Jews?

I think they have the wrong God.

The born-again Pharisees who reelected Bush are not so different from another group that promotes murder and intolerance in the name of their God. No good God would ever sanction suicide bombing, blatant discrimination against race, or wholesale murder of innocents, whether it is the Twin Towers or 100,000 civilians in Iraq. I am not a religious person but seem to remember that.

Once, a man lived on this strange orb who told us to love one another, even our enemies. He was not a rich man, had no education, and had a soft spot for children and the weak. He resented those who perverted religion to promote intolerance or nonsensical adherence to religious principle. Some say he was crucified for his troubles, but some people listened to him. Where are they now?

Not too long ago, another man inhabited this country. He was not a rich man, had no education, and also had a soft spot for children and the weak. When the US unilaterally attacked Mexico in a blatant land grab, he spoke out against it. Of our enemies, he warned we must have malice toward none and charity for all. He was also murdered for his efforts. Some people listened to him, even Republicans. Where are they now? Those are the people with values.