Bringing two poems into the digital age

Presenting two poems into the realm of cyberspace is my good deed for the day.

Tails and Legs and “Fraudulent” Presidential Elections

There’s no single subject I’ve written about more often on this blog, in the nine years I’ve been doing this, than Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps that’s because time and again, examples from Lincoln’s life and times bear a striking relevance to our own. The disputed (by some) presidential election of 2020 reminds me of a story

The avocado test

Saturday night, 9 PM I had dropped off my little one at a friend’s house, and was picking up a few items on my way home. The ALDI store that I stopped at didn’t have any baskets available (due to COVID, perhaps?) and I wasn’t getting enough items to justify using a cart. This will

Trump will never be another Lincoln

The photo op at the White House yesterday was perhaps the most absurd and unsettling moment I can imagine. Peaceful citizens standing in front of the White House, doing nothing more than peacefully assembling as the First Amendment allows, were tear gassed and shot at with projectiles, so that the national disgrace that is Donald

Republicans are no longer the Party of Lincoln

The nomination of Corey Stewart for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, and the president’s embrace of him, means that the Republicans can no longer call themselves the Party of Lincoln. It’s just that simple. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president, and the entirety of his time in office was dedicated to settling the

A letter to the president concerning Confederate “heritage”

“You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.” –Donald Trump, August 17, 2017 Mr. President, Your sentiment about history and our collective ability to learn from it could be the truest thing you’ve ever said. Since you’ve opened the door to history’s teachable qualities, this former U.S. History teacher from Chicago is delivering

Time to give a history lesson to Donald Trump

The man seems to be unaware of what the reason for the Civil War was, so here goes: In 1860, there was a presidential election held. In that election, there were four main candidates: Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, John Bell, and John C. Breckinridge. Here’s a primer on Breckinridge, in case anyone hasn’t heard the

A horrible image

  Since this is the 4th of July weekend, I pulled a copy of “Masterpieces of American Literature,” published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1891, off my bookshelf about an hour ago. I once bought it for 50 cents at an estate sale, and have found interesting things in it from time to time. I

A Lincoln gallery

One hundred and fifty-three years ago today, Abraham Lincoln began the process of righting America’s greatest wrong. Slavery had existed for centuries, sanctioned by law and practiced by many of the men who spoke of human liberty when they applied it to white folks, but were more than willing to deny it to those who

Calling out the biggest gun of all

My younger daughter’s school finds itself without a principal, at the beginning of a new school year. This is a recipe for disaster at any school, but when a school has thousands of students, the stakes are raised immeasurably. In such a situation, a leader is needed to provide a firm hand. I know of

Beauty with a side of thought

Last night, I was watching my older daughter’s play at an outdoor venue in the suburbs. The previous two shows had been cancelled because of rain (such are the perils of outdoor performance), and it looked questionable whether last night’s show would meet with the same fate. But the huge puffy clouds in the sky

A day to honor Lincoln

There were no official events scheduled to honor Abraham Lincoln, 150 years after his body lay in state in Chicago. So I took matters into my own hands.

I may be freakin’ or peakin’

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t get Paul’s Boutique right away. I loved Licensed to Ill, the first Beastie Boys album, when it dropped in 1986. A couple of years later, I was expecting the follow-up to be Licensed to Ill, Part 2. And I was frankly disappointed when that didn’t happen.

Complicated and off-kilter

  I’m a big Abraham Lincoln fan, and I’ve written about statues of him, and busts, and artworks, and really anything else I could find. But Lincoln Avenue has somehow escaped my attention, until now. Last night I found myself driving down Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, and I realized a couple of things. There are

An unexpected payoff

Being a Cubs fan is never an easy thing. After spending almost forty years in that fold, I can make such a statement with complete confidence. The good years–as measured by when the team makes it to the playoffs– can be counted on one hand, or two hands at the very most. And every one

The Gladness of Nature

Whenever a person starts naming poets, there aren’t too many who would put William Cullen Bryant on their list. He lived in the 19th Century, and he became a lawyer because poetry didn’t pay the bills. He was also a political supporter of another poet named Abraham Lincoln, and he introduced Lincoln at his speech

Love for Lincoln in Little Havana

I saw this on a wall, on the anniversary of Lincoln’s death, and wanted to put it on the blog. Lincoln’s appeal extends to Little Havana and everywhere that humans want to breathe free.

Jon Stewart nails it

I admire Abraham Lincoln like no one else. I think he is the reason that slavery came to an end in this nation, and he took a stand that ultimately cost him his own life in order to see to it that slavery disappeared. And suggestions to the contrary never have–and never will–make any sense

All things Gettysburg

I started writing this blog two and a half years ago, and I’ve mentioned the Gettysburg Address thirteen times before today. Here’s a link to all of the previous references. I love Abraham Lincoln, and I love the Gettysburg Address. I’m not apologetic about it, either. Slavery is the worst thing that ever happened in

Working in publishing has its perks

I suppose that I was born to work in the publishing business, as  I love reading, writing, and creating new materials. I love telling stories, essentially. I enjoy it so much that I spend much of my free time doing it for kicks, either here on this blog or some of the other websites that

Towering over Lincoln

Last weekend, I was at the Sangamon County courthouse in Springfield, Illinois. I was originally directed to the sixth floor, and when I got off the elevator I was greeted by a large bust of Abraham Lincoln, who never practiced in that courthouse, but who was a pretty successful Springfield lawyer. I posed for a

The coolest place I can think of

As a certified baseball junkie, and an Abraham Lincoln fan to boot, I can’t think of a better place to visit than where I am right now. When Lincoln was riding the legal circuit in Central Illinois, before anyone knew his name, he came to Postville park in a town that would one day bear

Life is short, especially for ex-Cub pitchers

The death of Frank Castillo–who Cubs fans like me remember, but hardly anybody does–was the fourth such death of a Cubs pitcher from the 1990s in the past few years. I don’t know why it’s only the pitchers involved, but even one of these would be strange enough. Four of them, though, is just too

Looking for Suck

I realize that this post has a provocative title, and anyone who came here looking for porn is bound to be disappointed. There’s nothing of a sexual nature (I assure you) in this post, and if you’re looking for that, go someplace else. But if the title is intriguing, read on a little bit. This

Rob Chill Manana

On Oscar night a couple of years ago, I put some of the winner’s names into an online anagram maker. And this year, I found myself sitting at the computer on Oscar night. Just for fun, I typed in the name “Abraham Lincoln” not because he was nominated, but because there had just been a