Monday, February 9, 2009

Four Score and...WTF?

So this week, on Thursday, is Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday; to be honest, I'm so happy for the old guy. He doesn't look a day over 125.

For real though, there is a Lincoln orgy going on in this country right now. The New York Times even took a break from reassuring limousine liberals that it is not in financial hot water to run a piece on some new books about Abraham Lincoln that are coming out around this historic birthday. Accompanying the story are some cool cartoons of the 16th President.

New lets get real. Maybe its just me, but I am at the point where I doubt whether many of the anecdotes attributed to the Great Emancipator are true. I mean, he did not free the slaves. He freed slaves in parts of the country that were NOT PART OF THE COUNTRY in 1863. He was a great President who held the country together in perhaps its most trying time, but I feel like we are talking about Augustus in the age of Constantine here. Lincoln is nevertheless a vital part of the American myth; if pennies go out of circulation I will NOT be happy.

I do really want to go to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. They built a Greek Temple around a reconstruction of the cabin in which he was born. Get into it.

1 comment:

  1. I just peeped some pictures of the memorial building with the cabin inside; you're right, that's totally fucking over the top. You gotta go.

    ReplyDelete