From one brilliant president to another

The only guest post I’ve ever had, in the more than 1,100 posts I’ve put here through the years, was a tweet that Barack Obama sent out on the night he was re-elected. He went out and spoke to his supporters after sending it, but those who follow him on Twitter got to hear the

A reason to admire Lincoln

I write about Lincoln all the time here, and there’s a reason for that. He righted this nation’s greatest wrong, and he lifted the scourge that undercut everything America claimed to stand for. He made the nation that calls itself “the land of the free” into a closer approximation of that. And if we don’t

A Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address

Today I had some time on my hands, and a clear mission in mind. I wanted to film myself reciting the Gettysburg Address and upload it to Learntheaddress.org, a once-in-a-lifetime project to record and upload Lincoln’s speech for posterity. There’s still some time to do this, as I type this out three days before the

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

An alternate version of Lincoln’s words

Everybody knows the Gettysburg Address, or at least the version of it that appears in every history book you’ll ever see, and on the wall inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, and in other public places as well. But I recently came upon a slightly different version of it, and I wanted to share

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people

There’s a reason why, in a society where “that’s so last year” is a put-down, Lincoln still rings true. The man’s been dead for nearly a century and a half now, but he spoke the words, and wrote the words, that we all need to understand if we’re going to consider ourselves to be Americans.

Seven score and nine years ago

I had a few moments in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago this evening–on the 149th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address–and so I made a modern-day pilgrimage to the Standing Lincoln statue nearby. Lincoln’s speech is nothing less than amazing, in terms of its forceful and determined statement of what the battle meant, and the

Remembering Aaron Copland

Thirty-five years ago, roughly, I got myself into trouble. It was during music class, the once-a-week excursion outside of the classroom in the Catholic school that I attended in the 1970s, and into the music teacher’s classroom on the first floor. I’ll call the teacher Ms. F, but her full name isn’t really important to

It’s astounding

Lately, on the occasion of taking a run around my neighborhood, I take an iPhone along and listen to the music, to help pass those seconds and minutes when I actually am running. And the title to this post comes from the first line of The Time Warp, which is on my running playlist. I

A Lincoln triple play

Last year, my family and I traveled to Washington, DC for Spring Break. If you’re an American, and you’ve never been there before, get there as quickly as you can. There are items from the American experience that won’t be found anywhere but in Washington. Spend the money, and connect with your cultural home. And

Memorializing the Gettysburg Address

My daughter’s elementary school has an interesting plaque on the wall.  The school was built in 1902, and it’s still in use today. For a building that’s well over 100 years old, it’s holding up remarkably well.  Schools don’t seem to be built like that anymore. What makes this plaque so interesting is that, even

My favorite Lincoln statue

I’ve always been amazed by Abraham Lincoln. He literally came from nowhere, and saved the country at its darkest hour. He righted the worst wrong, while giving us bits of wisdom and insight that will ring true forever. I have a Lincoln desk calendar in the office where I work, but since I can go

A flash of inspiration

A few years ago, I was working as an editor for a large educational publisher. For Halloween, there was a costume contest held in one of the conference rooms in the afternoon. The safe route in a situation like this is to not dress up at all, and let others run the risk of embarrassing themselves.