READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN

Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
Miscellany: Presidential thoughts on Lincoln
Published: 2/11/2009 4:08 PM
Last Modified: 2/11/2009 4:08 PM

The documentary film "Looking for Lincoln" (which OETA -- not wanting to distract from its scheduled orgy of fund-raising reruns it calls "Festival" -- is airing at about 1 a.m. Thursday morning and 2 a.m. Friday morning) is an intriguing look at the myths and realities of Abraham Lincoln, whose 200th birthday is Thursday, 12 Februrary.

One of things Henry Louis Gates Jr., the show's writer and presenter, discovered in his study was that people tend to embrace the image of Lincoln that matters the most to them, regardless of what the facts might say about him.

That extends to the two former presidents Gates interviewed in the course of the show.

Bill Clinton talks about the literary, political and philosophical marvel that is the Gettysburg Address, that how “in a couple hundred words, he described how Americans were feeling or should be feeling” about the Civil War, while George W. Bush talks about his admiration of Lincoln’s “moral clarity” in waging an unpopular war.

Bush also says that, when it comes to the media and the court of popular opinion, “I got it so easy compared to Lincoln.”

That desire to find a personal connection with Lincoln -- which we wrote about in the story that ran in the 8 February Tulsa World -- is the reason for all the mythologizing about our 16th President. It is an activity that began, some say, at the very moment of his death, when Edward Stanton, one of Lincoln's Cabinet members, said, "Now he belongs to the ages" (or "to the angels" -- that's another one of those fact that remain in dispute).

But, as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said, “The real man is more extraordinary than the myth.”

Some of the facts that are presented in "Looking for Lincoln" may come as a surprise to those who know only a cursory history of the man — how his disapproval of the institution of slavery, for example, did not mean that Lincoln believed in racial equality.

But they reveal Lincoln to be both truly a man of time, and a man for all times — and at all times, simply a man.



Reader Comments


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
James D. Watts Jr's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  








Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise | Privacy
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.