Genius of Abraham Lincoln
It is axiomatic that a public official will receive potshots, justified or not, in the course of his duty. You might call it "job hazard." Abraham Lincoln’s track record as a politician was derided, his educational background was scoffed at, and even his presidential victory was downplayed as a mere stroke of good fortune, or as we Filipinos call it, chamba.
But countless sages throughout history would have dismissed these snipes as trivial. Wise men say that you can never put a good man down. In the final analysis, the only thing that matters is how you stood up to the challenges: did you fight, flinch or flee? Lincoln stood tall amidst the towering political stalwarts of his Cabinet – his harshest critics whom he appointed – and he was eventually vindicated.
Lincoln’s political career was like a morality play, where guys win in the end, and his character and policies are all immortalized, solidifying his legacy. At the same time, he left behind an illustrious life that became the model of every decent public official – and the moral standard of future generations. The poet Walt Whitman depicted him as "the grandest figure yet, on all the crowded canvass of the Nineteenth Century."
What is it about Lincoln that quickens the heart and galvanizes the mind? In the purest sense, he is somebody whom everyone can identify with, even Juan De la Cruz. Lincoln was an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life, a railroad worker who rose to become one the greatest Presidents in the history of the United States.
Pulitzer Prizewinning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin titled her bestselling and critically acclaimed biographical tribute as A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. It is a reference to the men whom he chose to surround himself with. William Henry Seward has been a Governor of New York for two terms and a Senator for more than ten years. Salmon P. Chase – one of the Founding fathers of the Republican Party – has also been a Governor and a Senator in his state of Ohio. Edward Bates of Missouri was already an elderly statesman, whose every opinion was sought and highly respected.
Lincoln ran up against these three gigantic figures. His experience, education and qualification paled in comparison with theirs, so the Big 3 was shocked when he became the standard-bearer – a 19th century version of the Obama-Hillary race – and eventually won the presidency.
Abraham was now the official 16th President of the United States.
But an even bigger shock awaited the Big 3. President Lincoln "stunned the political world by putting all three of his rivals into his Cabinet," writes Goodwin. Negative repercussions notwithstanding, it was actually "a subtlety of perception about what he needs, and a deep emotional strength that lay behind Lincoln’s move." Think about it for a while. How many people in Lincoln’s situation would feel secure enough to do such a radical and unprecedented move? "A less confident man might have surrounded himself with personal supporters who would never question his authority."
But the President, a true statesman, clarified the pragmatic wisdom of his decision. "I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their service."
This magnificent gesture "was perhaps the most obvious example of his emotional strength," writes Goodwin. "But there are many others, all of which highlighted a different aspect of it."
Empathy. Lincoln can understand what others think and feel. The most divisive issue in America during his time was slavery. Some people want to abolish it while others adamantly refuse to, to the point of breaking away from the union of States. Slavery was not just a political issue, it was also the economic backbone of most places in the South.
This led to the bloody Civil War. Instead of blame and condemnation, Lincoln expressed profound and wide-embracing understanding of why the situation assumed such tragic dimensions. Both North and South contributed to the infamy, Lincoln was saying, but his Second Inaugural speech was both diplomatically elegant and unforgettable. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and invoke His aid against the other." The President cited the Scriptures: "Let us judge not that we be not judged."
Humor. Leadership is a serious business – when it’s work, it’s work, and there should be no hanky-panky. But everything has its place. Lincoln was good at what he did, but his sense of humor was equally legendary.
He was a born story teller – perhaps that also explains his exquisitely perfect writing. "Many of his stories, taken from is seemingly unlimited stock, were directly applicable to a point being argued," writes Goodwin. "Many were self-deprecatory, all were hilarious."
Magnanimity. This is the noblest of all graces. Only a large heart – and a secure ego – can afford to overlook the things that aren’t worth dignifying. Lincoln "refused to bear grudges or pay people back for previous hurts," writes Goodwin. "So rare in a politician, this attitude allowed him to form friendships and alliances with those who had previously opposed him."
He says to himself: "No man resolved to make the most of himself has time to waste on personal contention."
Generosity of spirit. Lincoln belonged to that rare breed of politician who publicly took the blame – and actually did something to rectify the mistake. The President had an argument with Gen. Ulysses Grant about war tactics – but Grant’s strategy proved the right move. Lincoln wrote him: "I now wish the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong."
Perspective. Lincoln knew how to prioritize because he saw the big picture. He knew which areas need his utmost focus, and which can wait a moment longer.
Another of enemy was Edwin Stanton – whom he actually appointed as Secretary of War – called him a fool, among a host of other expletives. The President told his aide; "If Stanton said I was a damn fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right and generally says what he means. I will step over and see him."
Self-control. His ribald and corny jokes aside, Lincoln was known for his self-control. When he got mad at somebody, he would write a scathing letter to that person – but he will never send it.
He even apologized when the situation – and his sense of honor -- warranted it. "By such gestures," writes Goodwin, "repeated again and again, he repaired inured feelings that might have escalated into lasting animosity."
Social conscience. In his own words, Lincoln’s greatest dream was to live his life in such a way that he would leave "the world a little better for my having lived in it."
"Nearly two thousand centuries after his birth," writes Goodwin, "we can say with certainty that the ambition that powered Lincoln from his earliest days – the desire to establish an admirable reputation on earth so that his story could be told after he died – has been realized far beyond his fondest hopes."
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
In Memoriam of Dunblane
My Favorite Book Essay
In Memoriam: Dunblane
Why do bad things happen to good people? If you ask ten different people, you might get ten different answers – but they are just tentative guesses, futile attempts to understand that which is beyond understanding. Nobody has the monopoly on wisdom; nobody knows all the answers.
Or perhaps, there isn’t any.
In the end, all we have left is faith…and acceptance…and the human need to move on.
The deaths of children summon the most heart-breaking of grief, the most poignant of yearning for What-could-have-been. Even, as the Bible says, There is a time for everything, an untimely death is like a treacherous thief that steals the memories of today and the fulfillment of tomorrow. The future will never be as we want it to be, but it will come, as sure as rivers flows into the seas; and with it, we must be there to face it, no matter how raw the emotions, how deep the wounds, how the torturous the journey.
Behind every book is a story; and behind every story are the lives of people who have loved, labored, dreamed and tried to grasp the riddles of the universe. And behind the dark clouds of agony, glimmers the evanescence of hope…and redemption.
On the morning of March 13, 1996, six school children and their teacher was senselessly massacred by a gunman at Dunblane Primary One in central Scotland. It was a tragedy that stunned the world. This is the story of the seemingly miraculous events that followed.
And it is also the story that illuminates the true meaning of universal kinship and the glory of humanity.
As the shockwaves spread across the globe, a young man in Alberta, Canada felt the loss at its most palpable and visceral. Just a month earlier, Chris Armstrong’s mother was murdered, and the pain was still burning fiercely white-hot in his heart and soul. Chris, more than any other person of his generation, knew what the ones left behind are going through. I have to let them know I’m thinking about them, he resolved.
Galvanized into action, he went into the new amazing territory called Cyberspace; somebody had already set up a website to act as a message center for the Dunblane infamy, but it quickly became, instead, the repository of the various messages of sympathy from strangers from all over the world.
When Chris’ mother died, a friend sent him a card with a poem where he found a measure of comfort. He posted it: "A rose once grew where all could see,/ Sheltered beside a garden wall,/ And, as the days passed swiftly by,/ it spread its branches, straight and tall…" The poem goes on to say that the rose died and was raised to heaven by a beam of light. The last part says tenderly:
"Now, you who deeply feel its loss,/ be comforted – the rose blooms there,/ its beauty even greater now,/ nurtured by God’s own loving care."
Wiping away his tears, Chris wrote a personal message: "I hope that you can find comfort in mourning that others care and are thinking of you."
The outpouring of moral support was overwhelming. It was Ric Bean, a 48-year old graphic designer from London, who first suggested the idea of compiling all the messages in book form. The idea is a compendium of illustrated pages with special typefaces, inspired by the Book of Kells, the priceless Celtic manuscript.
Bean, like the towering historical figures Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, has been emotionally crippled by a severe chronic depression, and he was working on the book at the extreme edges of raw emotions. He would work at it everyday, but after two or three hours, he would just break down and cry.
During the service, the Rev. Colin McIntosh of the Dunblane Cathedral, articulated the question that everybody was asking: "How could God allow this to happen?"
He had no answers, he confessed. But "Our only comfort lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that our children should die; that in those fatal, frightening moments in the school gymnasium, God’s was the first of all our hearts to break."
These words appears in the opening pages of the Dunblane Book of Remembrance, my favorite book, and without a doubt, a refuge and a source of solace to millions around the world whose lives became a hallow, screaming darkness by the deaths of their loved ones.
The moving force behind the book was Glasgow Detective Jim McNulty. When he personally took the first copy to Dunblane, the school headmaster, Ron Taylor, tried to find the words that can adequately describe what happened: "It tells us just how deeply this terrible event affected the outside world. It reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering."
The letters were as varied as the people who sent them. A fellow Scot named Paul, aged 19, writes: "I know that your school starts back tomorrow. I know that this will be a very hard time for you, and I would like to let you know that me and my Primary Six class in Kelvindale, Glasgow are thinking of all of you at this time."
Nancy Zingrone and Carlos Alvarado of Puerto Rico write: "On this island, where crime is high and guns are plentiful, we still cannot help but stop and send our love and hopes and sense of common sadness to those suffering in Dunblane."
Mr. and Mrs. Pixton of Melbourne, Austrlia "wept when we heard the news report."
The highly inspiring and unprecedented volume, the Dunblane Book of Remembrance, has been read by millions, almost all of them with tears running down their faces – and the seeds of hope beginning to grow in their hearts. As this beautiful book quotes the Scriptures:
"Those who go through the desolate valleys will find it a place of springs, for the early rains have covered it with pools of water."
In Memoriam: Dunblane
Why do bad things happen to good people? If you ask ten different people, you might get ten different answers – but they are just tentative guesses, futile attempts to understand that which is beyond understanding. Nobody has the monopoly on wisdom; nobody knows all the answers.
Or perhaps, there isn’t any.
In the end, all we have left is faith…and acceptance…and the human need to move on.
The deaths of children summon the most heart-breaking of grief, the most poignant of yearning for What-could-have-been. Even, as the Bible says, There is a time for everything, an untimely death is like a treacherous thief that steals the memories of today and the fulfillment of tomorrow. The future will never be as we want it to be, but it will come, as sure as rivers flows into the seas; and with it, we must be there to face it, no matter how raw the emotions, how deep the wounds, how the torturous the journey.
Behind every book is a story; and behind every story are the lives of people who have loved, labored, dreamed and tried to grasp the riddles of the universe. And behind the dark clouds of agony, glimmers the evanescence of hope…and redemption.
On the morning of March 13, 1996, six school children and their teacher was senselessly massacred by a gunman at Dunblane Primary One in central Scotland. It was a tragedy that stunned the world. This is the story of the seemingly miraculous events that followed.
And it is also the story that illuminates the true meaning of universal kinship and the glory of humanity.
As the shockwaves spread across the globe, a young man in Alberta, Canada felt the loss at its most palpable and visceral. Just a month earlier, Chris Armstrong’s mother was murdered, and the pain was still burning fiercely white-hot in his heart and soul. Chris, more than any other person of his generation, knew what the ones left behind are going through. I have to let them know I’m thinking about them, he resolved.
Galvanized into action, he went into the new amazing territory called Cyberspace; somebody had already set up a website to act as a message center for the Dunblane infamy, but it quickly became, instead, the repository of the various messages of sympathy from strangers from all over the world.
When Chris’ mother died, a friend sent him a card with a poem where he found a measure of comfort. He posted it: "A rose once grew where all could see,/ Sheltered beside a garden wall,/ And, as the days passed swiftly by,/ it spread its branches, straight and tall…" The poem goes on to say that the rose died and was raised to heaven by a beam of light. The last part says tenderly:
"Now, you who deeply feel its loss,/ be comforted – the rose blooms there,/ its beauty even greater now,/ nurtured by God’s own loving care."
Wiping away his tears, Chris wrote a personal message: "I hope that you can find comfort in mourning that others care and are thinking of you."
The outpouring of moral support was overwhelming. It was Ric Bean, a 48-year old graphic designer from London, who first suggested the idea of compiling all the messages in book form. The idea is a compendium of illustrated pages with special typefaces, inspired by the Book of Kells, the priceless Celtic manuscript.
Bean, like the towering historical figures Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, has been emotionally crippled by a severe chronic depression, and he was working on the book at the extreme edges of raw emotions. He would work at it everyday, but after two or three hours, he would just break down and cry.
During the service, the Rev. Colin McIntosh of the Dunblane Cathedral, articulated the question that everybody was asking: "How could God allow this to happen?"
He had no answers, he confessed. But "Our only comfort lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that our children should die; that in those fatal, frightening moments in the school gymnasium, God’s was the first of all our hearts to break."
These words appears in the opening pages of the Dunblane Book of Remembrance, my favorite book, and without a doubt, a refuge and a source of solace to millions around the world whose lives became a hallow, screaming darkness by the deaths of their loved ones.
The moving force behind the book was Glasgow Detective Jim McNulty. When he personally took the first copy to Dunblane, the school headmaster, Ron Taylor, tried to find the words that can adequately describe what happened: "It tells us just how deeply this terrible event affected the outside world. It reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering."
The letters were as varied as the people who sent them. A fellow Scot named Paul, aged 19, writes: "I know that your school starts back tomorrow. I know that this will be a very hard time for you, and I would like to let you know that me and my Primary Six class in Kelvindale, Glasgow are thinking of all of you at this time."
Nancy Zingrone and Carlos Alvarado of Puerto Rico write: "On this island, where crime is high and guns are plentiful, we still cannot help but stop and send our love and hopes and sense of common sadness to those suffering in Dunblane."
Mr. and Mrs. Pixton of Melbourne, Austrlia "wept when we heard the news report."
The highly inspiring and unprecedented volume, the Dunblane Book of Remembrance, has been read by millions, almost all of them with tears running down their faces – and the seeds of hope beginning to grow in their hearts. As this beautiful book quotes the Scriptures:
"Those who go through the desolate valleys will find it a place of springs, for the early rains have covered it with pools of water."
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