| Commerce was never meant to be at odds with | | | | referred to Jesus Christ as well. He was well known |
| congress or even juxtaposed with it. But Presidents | | | | for the many failures in his life. They all seemed to |
| Day, it seems, like other special holidays has gone the | | | | prepare him for the one great success which was |
| way of all flesh. Even as a boy I remember | | | | even more than his presidency but the preservation |
| questioning how the Birth of a Savior could be | | | | of the union itself. |
| overtaken by the notion of a fat little benevolent | | | | Well known was Lincoln's ability to defuse a hot |
| man who comes bearing gifts. How did the | | | | situation and bring peace and harmony where there |
| celebration of a risen Savior get replaced with a | | | | was discord. His more down home quality may have |
| candy egg bearing bunny? How are the hopes of a | | | | been the ability to split logs to make rail fences and |
| new year brought in by ending the old one in a | | | | he was very good at that it is said. One lesser |
| drunken stupor? These questions don't need to be | | | | known talent was banjo picking and singing old folk |
| answered as much as pondered. The answers are | | | | ditties. Even these proclivities can't be thought of as |
| largely understood, knowing how to back out of our | | | | anything resembling barking for the sale of a people |
| clearly cuckoo behavior is not. | | | | moving buggy. |
| Would George Washington be glad to know that we | | | | In my grammar school days we were told the story |
| have found a way to honor his work in the founding | | | | of how Lincoln walked five miles back to the |
| of this country by making deals on an invention he | | | | merchant who gave him too much change. He |
| could not have imagined in his own time? Perhaps he | | | | returned a penny. Judging from the pennies I see on |
| might be let down by the fact that Lincoln at least | | | | supermarket floors and parking lots, I'd say people |
| got a car named after him. But where is the new | | | | wouldn't even bother to bend over to pick up a |
| Dodge George Washington four wheel drive SUV? | | | | penny today. Some say this story may not be true |
| Lincoln was known for many things but not one of | | | | at all. I say that if anyone might have done it that |
| them could be remotely connected to the sales of | | | | way it was probably Abraham Lincoln. |
| automobiles. How is it that automobiles got | | | | Being a good student is scoffed at in today's schools. |
| connected to him? Hasn't anyone noticed that a fleet | | | | Trying to be kind is thought of as weakness in the |
| of Lincoln Continentals cannot compare even | | | | land of extreme sports and blood fights. And |
| marginally to the great character and legacy that | | | | renowned men of old whose character and deeds |
| Lincoln left to us all? | | | | are legendary are insulted by our indifference. |
| Lincoln said "Intelligence, patriotism Christianity and a | | | | Is the final insult to replace or supplant all repose to |
| firm reliance are still competent to adjust, in the best | | | | them in any fashion with the super sale of the latest |
| way, all our present difficulty." Was he remiss or did | | | | stuff out of Detroit? By our indifference to the |
| he forget to add the part about a good deal on a | | | | presidents both in practice and in the halls of |
| car? | | | | academia perhaps we should heed the warnings of |
| It was said that Lincoln was more like a spirit than a | | | | Lincoln who said "The philosophy of the school room |
| man. He was the only president who not only was | | | | in one generation will be the philosophy of |
| unafraid to use God in his speeches but he actually | | | | government in the next. |