Today I ran across an article where a letter from President Lincoln has been found and is going up for auction. In the article the curator noted, "Abraham Lincoln was one of the four most hated presidents in U.S. history. . . . The other three are Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman and George W. Bush." WHAT?!?! Comparing Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush? After all Lincoln is one of our great presidents. Lincoln's legacy consists of emancipating the slaves and saving the union. His face is on Mount Rushmore for crying out loud! and now this guy is comparing Lincoln to George W. Bush whose legacy is the Iraq war and our current economic crisis? What was he thinking?
But then I got to thinking, perhaps a president's legacy can only be viewed through the lens history. Who knows what our children and grandchildren will think of our current times in 50 or 100 years. Perhaps the Iraq war won't be so washed in controversy, but instead will be noted as the turning point in middle eastern politics which opened the door to equality between men and women and different tribes in the region. Perhaps our current economic crisis will be seen as a starting point for even greater economic growth and freedom from over consumption and reliance on credit. Perhaps. . .
Anyhow, it reminded me about the movie "Charlie Wilson's War". (If you haven't seen it you should.) The movie is based on a true story which has some interesting relevance to our current situation. In the movie the supporting character has a wise saying that he shares which goes something like this:
“A boy is given a horse on his 14th birthday. Everyone in the village says, “Oh how wonderful.” But a Zen master who lives in the village says, “we shall see.” The boy falls off the horse and breaks his foot. Everyone in the village says, “Oh how awful.” The Zen master says, “We shall see.” The village is thrown into war and all the young men have to go to war. But, because of the broken foot, the boy stays behind. Everyone says, “Oh, how wonderful.” The Zen master says, “We shall see.”
So with that, we shall see . . .
3 comments:
I'm sure at the time if you told people that Abe Lincoln would be a much loved president they would say "huh? the guy responsible for the Civil War?" Which today 1.We would say the Civil War was a good thing 2. We don't hold Abe Lincoln solely responsible for the Civil War. Likewise, I don't think Bush is the only one responsible for our current situation....I don't think he was out there handing out subprime loans. But it's true that we usually can't see past the ends of our noses to see what may be down the road.
This is a really good post. It makes me think of my Pepaw. He had his left arm removed when he was 6 due to injury. When he was a young man, he couldn't go to war because of it. So he worked as a meter man instead and met my Memaw at the office where she was a secretary when he went to check the meters. The rest is history.
Interesting that Lincoln was considered to be one of the most hated Presidents of all time. But I don't know if Pres. Bush will ever been deemed a "good" President like we now consider Lincoln to be. True, he alone isn't responsible for the crisis we're in but there is so much that he has a huge role in: the biggest of which is the Iraq War. But you're right...we shall see. :)
Post a Comment