Tuesday, May 23, 2006

A few tidbits on Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln ...perhaps one of the greatest men to reside on this mudball called Earth.








I have always marveled at the life of Lincoln and his great intellect. He was a great man and became to many a hero....and of course hero's know when to die.

I wanted to touch lightly on 3 points about Lincoln. He gives us some great lessons on personal control and how to pull a fast one as well.




1. Anger management.




Lincoln always love to tell people when they were really hopping mad to write a letter to the person they were mad at. Once they finished Lincoln would look at them and say "Now tear it up". They would be perplexed.......saying why Mr. President? Lincoln would tell them that they had told the party what you thought of them and you got it out of your system. After that Lincoln would tell them to write a letter again with out all the nasty parts. Lincoln said that he often did that himself, and it saved him from writing something that might be embarrassing later.
So take Mr Lincoln's advice, when you are mad write that letter to so and so...and tell them how awful they are...then destroy it and write another....you will be glad you did!





2. Political showmanship




Lincoln was a master politician, he was such a good politician you didn't know he was!
He mastered the art early on, on how to handle a people. He did it by usually using double talk....Many times you think you had an answer from Lincoln, and then you would find out later that the answer you were given was not an answer but magnificent political prowess.
I would like to speak about one of Lincoln's greatest political moves ...The Proclamation of Emancipation....This was one of the greatest documents ever written, and what's more it said nothing! To put it in the simplest terms the document stated that all slaves in the rebelling states were now free. That sounds wonderful, but what states were not under Lincoln's control? The states that were rebelling.

Lincoln did not grant freedom to slaves in the boarder states that had remained in the union. So Lincoln freed people he had no control to free, and the people that he could free he did not.....It was an amazing political move. It made the war against the south a holy war! What was the document was to do?...It was designed to keep England on our side. How could a nation (England) attack a country(USA) that is doing the same thing England had done before "Freeing the slaves" So the document that really said nothing much ...did a whole hell of a lot! Changed the war from one of States rights to one of Slavery, and the finishing up of the awful practice. Lincoln without really saying anything had changed the war and made it a crusade!





3. Laughter is the best medicine




Lincoln taught us that it is ok to laugh. He once said that if he did not laugh, he would die. When one looks at his picture and sees the stress that ate away at him..We can see what a great relief it was for him to laugh. Lincoln was not a singer, but he was a great storyteller.
I am reminded of a Lincoln joke.

Here is a good story of Lincoln's which dealt with a judge he used to work with.....

He would say " I was walking to the courthouse and the judge came by with his carriage and asked me if I wanted a ride to the courthouse. I said sure....I hopped on.... and the carriage was swinging to the right and left...and I turned to the Judge and said...Judge, I think your driver is drunk. The Judge leaned out the window and yelled ....You scoundrel, you are drunk! The carriage came to a stop and the Irish driver said back to the judge...:That's the first correct decision you've made this year!!!"

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