How quickly we forget

[AVB]

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the next day.

 

[tone-ny]

Not exactly in today's NY Times, in the Op-Rd section they had a piece by Richard Wightman Fox entitled "The President Who Died for Us". A great read, so he is on many other minds today. Thanks for thinking of him AVB!

 

[CasaSoho]

"Those who deny freedom to others,deserve it not for themselves; and,under a just God, can not long retain it."

No matter how inconsequential anti-smoking laws may seem to the public as a whole, they are an assault on our freedom. Although I can’t speak for Honest Abe, I have a feeling I know where he would stand.

 

[BrownDevil]

Thanks for the reminder AVB :thumbs:

 

[hudsonvalley]

"Those who deny freedom to others,deserve it not for themselves; and,under a just God, can not long retain it."

No matter how inconsequential anti-smoking laws may seem to the public as a whole, they are an assault on our freedom. Although I can’t speak for Honest Abe, I have a feeling I know where he would stand.

Hmmm...not to make light of the personal freedoms we find eroding but I can't really think of them in the same terms these words were spoken in, a time when whole families were torn apart, bought and sold.

A person to truly reflect upon, AVB, thanks. To me his most profound words are the ones etched in the walls of his Memorial in Washington, his second Inaugural Address. Among the words there are these, a profound look from deep perspective on the current events of that day,

"The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

The complete text can be found here

Like the Gettysburg Address it is amazing in it's brevity and clarity.