Your Turn: November 5, 2008. 12:15 A.M.

Recently, we visited the Lincoln Memorial and read material indicating that, at the time of its establishment, racial attitudes were still unbending. Therefore, Abe was not memorialized as the president who freed the slaves, but as the president who saved the union.
Perhaps text could be added to reflect the former, for which he is revered today.
m.p.

Looking at the nighttime setting with the illumination of the statue reminds me of the first men walking on the moon in 1969. The figures of tha astronauts were eerie and distant, yet the feeling we all felt was one of victory and achievement, so there is that aspect in common.
Matt’s photo of the Howard University School of Medicine students evokes another circle of thoughts for me: Oliver Otis Howard headed the Freedman’s Bureau when the Civil War ended and was instrumental in expanding Howard from a seminary to a university. Gen Howard was equal-opportunity – some thirty years later he established Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee for “mountain whites.” So, with the passage of time and an inspiring leader in President-elect Obama, we can expect to maintain and hopefully expand, the campaign’s spirit of inspiration, dedication, and cooperation that includes all ages, races and classes.

This beautiful shot is also reminiscent of two scenes from Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON — the scene where a naive new senator, Jefferson Smith, played by Jimmy Stewart, goes to the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration when he first comes to Washington, and the later scene when Smith, discouraged by what he has found out about Washington, goes to a darkened Lincoln Memorial for consolation and discovers a new courage and determination to get on with the business of democracy.

So many of the photographs taken during the campaign were simply stagecraft — This one IS the American Stage.
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I’m always fascinated by the use of the word “temple” here, a conflation of the secular and the religious in a way that is different from what we’ve grown to expect in our times. Lincoln revered as a god. Architecture as apotheosis.
Of course in the press conference Obama referenced Lincoln when asked what he had been reading. With Bush anything he supposedly was reading was a prop. With Obama I have to believe that he really is reading Lincoln as he prepares to lead. Appropriate: the union again needs saving.

My good friend Tom Benson is right on the mark with his comment above, but I must say it also gives me a bit of pause.
As much as I too am energized by the ways in which Jefferson Smith takes on a corrupt government and makes all right
and just, I remember too that Frank Capra’s America is also just a little bit romanticized and saccharine and I worry about
putting too many expectations on that myth. Maybe — in my own romanticization — the difference between Mr. Smith
and the picture above is then it was Mr. Smith who went to see Lincoln with inspiration, but here (this past Memorial Day)
it is a collection of “the people” … and surely it is their active reflection and engagement that will be most necessary to work
through the many troubles we face at this critical juncture in our history.

It wasn’t until after the election that I made the association/ connection with the president-elect and his home state, the Land of Lincoln. The two tall lanky former Illinois state legislators might be bookends on the period of our history where we struggled with the destructive social consequences of racism. The contours of the map of Lincoln’s house divided bleed through the electoral map from last Tuesday, nearly 150 years later. Here’s hoping we’ve learned a little bit from that history. President-elect Obama seems to have the intelligence and disposition to help us find our way.

Yesterday (11-08-08), Maureen Dowd’s column ended with her musing that she might walk over to Lincoln’s memorial and climb up into his lap. Yes! Yes! What a perfect gesture. And it’s only a $50 fine.

Free at last…

Sitting at the feet of the Master. American politics is finally ready for a Master Class in How it All Can Work.

It made me remember the Bill Mauldin cartoon of the Lincoln statue crying…if I find, I’ll send link!

The right leader at the right time can help the people to save a Union at risk. Lincoln was revered not only for what he said but for what he did and what he enlisted the people to do. Time will tell if the people will help President Obama accomplish as much.

Hello from Spain.
I make picture dedicated to Obama:-)
http://flickr.com/photos/mermadon_1967/3016373093/

If only I were certain that some of those folks were non-white.

Elfpix, check out the link on the right, the one with the date and the time. Matt has provided a view of the radio and a small group of listeners. You may be certain now.

From what I remember of visiting Washington, the Jefferson Memorial was more beautiful, but the Lincoln Memorial was more emotional, as if one wanted to just linger for a while.
Another thing occurs in reading over the comments above. There seems to be a dyad to Obama’s election. There is a very personal ‘down-home’ quality to it, as if there is finally hope for a healing that only started forty years ago. Whoopie Goldberg said she felt like she could finally put down her bags. It’s a very internal, USA only kind of feeling.
The other side is for the world. That we can finally hold our heads up and face the world with hope and pride, the way we did after WWII. I don’t think anyone believes it will be easy to dig out of this hole, but I’m definitely getting the feeling that people want to try to do it.

Trying my hand at some bagnews style analysis over here…
http://www.fightingliberals.com/2008/11/with-liberal-lens-110908.html
what do you all think?
RE the above. I love the shot, the people taking back their gov. with 2 presidents from Illinois. Yippee

The Lincoln Memorial holds a very special place, both in my personal memory and in our collective one.
I used to travel to Washington frequently on business, and always stayed in a hotel within a short walk from the Mall. I liked to think of some of the places there as occupying spots in my own private park, and was especially grateful for the chance to visit them at some very quiet times.
I was once alone on those same steps as the sun rose one early morning. It was a privilege.
And I guess that’s what this photo reminds me of the most – that solitary moment, or a moment spent in deep quiet with like-minded people.
Mendelsohn’s observation that there were no crowds, as he had expected, underscores that sense for me.

Being a great admirer of Norman Rockwell, I love your description, “Norman Rockwell’s ‘Obama victory’ cover”.

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