Happy 200th B-day Abe & Charles

Last night we watched the fascinating PBS documentary Looking for Lincoln which helped me see our 16th President in a completely different light! It was two-hours well spent.

Today I logged onto the LOOKING FOR LINCOLN web site and learned that you can view the documentary online! Thanks to public media provider WNET.ORG. It is playing a major role in the nationwide Lincoln Bicentennial celebration in 2009, which besides the documentary is providing outreach project that explores the life and legacy of the man widely considered one of our best and most enigmatic presidents.

The documentary, presented and written by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (African American Lives, Oprah’s Roots), addresses many of the controversies surrounding Lincoln – race, equality, religion, politics, and depression – by carefully interpreting evidence from those who knew him and those who study him today.

Professor Gate's quest to piece together Lincoln’s complex life takes him from Illinois to Gettysburg to Washington, D.C., and face-to-face with people who live with Lincoln every day – relic hunters, re-enactors, and others for whom the study of Lincoln is a passion.

Lincoln was not the man we learned about in school, the man we deify. He was much more complex, much more human. Somehow, his frailties and flaws make him more approachable. It makes his accomplishments even more astonishing.

The biggest surprise to me:

The man known as “The Great Emancipator” was not always intent on the abolishment of slavery.

Lincoln was raised to hold anti-slavery views and was against the expansion of slavery, but didn’t think that the Constitution gave the federal government the right to interfere with slavery in the states. After all, slaves were property--property protected by the Constitution.

His views on slavery were developed mostly for political and economic reasons. Additionally, in the mid-19th century it would have been an unwise political strategy to hold strong abolitionist views – if he had, Lincoln may never have been elected president!

The intentions of the Emancipation Proclamation are also steeped in ambiguity – did it actually free any slaves? The language of the document indicated that slaves would be freed in those states currently rebelling against the Union, but those states did not recognize Lincoln’s authority and thus did not adhere to the Proclamation.

It’s suggested that the Emancipation Proclamation was intended as a political maneuver to preserve the Union, and had little to do with the slaves. Regardless of Lincoln’s earlier views and intentions, he did ultimately sign into effect the 13th Amendment, permanently ending slavery in the United States.

Another great man was born on the same day in the same year as Abraham Lincoln.

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who published on a variety of biological subjects. When he began his education in Cambridge, he was studying to become a clergyman for the Anglican Church. In his pursuit of knowledge about where species come from and how they are related, Darwin traveled the globe making detailed observations of plant and animal life.

Charles Darwin has contributed more to our understanding of the world around us than any other person in the last 2,000 years of Human History.

He is entombed at Westminster Abbey in London along with royalty, poets, scientists, philosophers, naturalists, admirals, and dignitaries of all sorts.

Here is a list of Darwin's pall-bearers:

George Campbell - The 9th Duke of Argyll

William Cavendish - The 7th Duke of Devonshire

Edward Henry Stanley - The 15th Earl of Derby

James Russell Lowell - The American Ambassador to Britain

William Spottiswoode - Mathematician, physicist, the Queen's Printer, and friend of Darwin

Joseph Dalton Hooker - Darwin's close friend and champion of his Theory of Evolution

Thomas Henry Huxley - Darwin's close friend and champion of his Theory of Evolution

Alfred Russel Wallace - Darwin's friend and the co-founder of Natural Selection

Sir John Lubbock - The 1st Baron of Avebury, Darwin's next door neighbor and close friend

HAPPY 200th BIRTHDAY MR. LINCOLN AND MR. DARWIN!!

You both changed the world.

My Son's Creation!

Enough Said!

(click on picture to read McCain's statement)

I Voted Early!

Infamous Voting Machine - No Hanging Chads

Yup, I voted early! For what it's worth, the damage is done. It's a shame my vote will not count for much. Utah is brazenly Republican. All five of our electoral votes will obviously go to McLame and Failin'. But I make no bones about the fact that I supported Obama even before he announced he was running.

When Obama gave a speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, I said, "That's the man who should be running for president."

We live in a very Republican neighborhood and don't dare put an Obama sign in our yard for fear of alienating our neighbors. We avoid talking politics with our church friends, as if it is immoral, unChristian to be a Democrat. Well, here are some of the things I consider immoral:

• I happen to feel it is immoral to wage an unprovoked war, to kill soldiers and civilians, to destroy buildings and infrastructures--all in the name of oil and GREED--at the cost of $255 million per day, $1.78 billion a week, or over $7 billion a month.


• I happen to feel it is immoral that 45 million Americans do not have health insurance, especially considering the amount of $$ spent on the above. Please read TravelinOma's blog today, if you really want to hear lack of insurance problems.


• I happen to feel it is immoral to give 700 billion dollars to the rich Wallstreet FatCats while there is such great need and poverty in our land.


• I think it is immoral that our teachers are underpaid and our children are poorly educated.

The is much immorality in the government and I can't really put into words how strongly I feel about the necessity of CHANGE. We need more than change, we need an overhaul, a total revamping.

I voted early because I was going to be in London on Election Day. That trip, sadly, will not take place. Please remember that money is a problem for the middle class in the U.S. and vote for Barack Obama.

Citizens' Duty

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions inpolitical affairs.

~~ Albert Einstein

An Unfinished Mission

Bobby Kennedy

Forty years ago today, the hope of America was snuffed out at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. How different our world would be today. Dreams died that night.

I heard Bobby speak the week before his death at the Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City. I was inspired, ecstatic, moved. I wasn't moved again by a politician until Senator Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention in 2004. After both speeches I said, "I want that man to lead our country." Bobby was not just a politician. He was a true Statesman. He cared about people. I see this in Obama. Finally, I feel we have hope again.

The Terrace Ballroom was torn down years ago. Gone. The Ambassador Hotel was torn down. Gone. JFK, MLK, RFK. Gone. America's pride and confidence. Gone. Gone. Gone.

It is time for hope in the future. Hope that all American's will have affordable healthcare. Hope that families will be able to afford homes. Hope that our troops can come home from Iraq.

Hope that a a brave, intelligent and thoughtful man can turn things around for our country.

Why I'm a Progressive Liberal

My parents and grandparents were all Republicans. However, the Republican party they supported is not the Republican party of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

I don't think people should pigeonhole themselves as being "a" this or a "that." Molly Ivins eloquently spoke about this categorization of people. "One should view each issue separately."

Look at the historical perspective. Those "horrible" liberal movements brought us scientific achievement, enlighted thinking, and promoted the American Revolution. Much of what America's Constitution is based on--is liberal thought. Liberalism brought an end to slavery, gave us civil rights and women's suffrage, worker's rights, environmental protection, the New Deal and end to the Great Depression.

Even Republican politicians have held liberal beliefs. Many of Lincoln's policies and viewpoints would have been considered "liberal." Teddy Roosevelt was an fervent conservationist and engaged in trust-busting campaigns (please, Republican Party, go back to Teddy, not Reagan).

Eisenhower enabled the funding for our interstate highway system (socialism?) and prophetically warned us against the the "military-industrial complex" in his farewell address. Juxtapose this against PNAC and neo-conservative ideology. Even Nixon created that "liberal" EPA.

JFK summed it up best:". . . if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties . . . if that is what they mean by a liberal then I am proud to be a liberal."

Michigan Primary (Ho Hum)

Okay, the above is how I feel about the current administration and the current presidential campaign. I am not a Bush fan (quite the contrary), nor am I really thrilled with any of the candidates. However, I also feel anything has got to be better than what we've got now.

I'm leaning toward one favorite (a Democrat), because I REALLY want to see change in this country (hint, hint).

I want to be proud of America, proud to be an American again. Big changes need to occur before that happens. However, it's going to take strong leadership and many years to clean up the mess that has been created in the last seven years. I'm not sure anyone or any group can fix wants wrong, let alone any of the candidates. If I'm not part of the solution, I must be part of the problem. Right? So, I'm trying to think of ways to help my community besides recycling, using less gasoline and electricity, voting and trying to being a good citizen. Any ideas?

We all need to do are part.