Hijacking Lincoln

Men's News Daily ^ | February 6, 2003 | Paul Walfield

[political_chick]

Hijacking Lincoln

February 6, 2003

by Paul Walfield

Marc Morano of CNSNews has reported that tours of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. aren't what they used to be. I can remember my first visit to D.C. way back when and my parents telling me about the Lincoln Memorial, and walking up the huge steps, and seeing the great man seated and looking majestic. I can even remember seeing his words etched in the stone all around me as I stood at his feet. It was striking, it was awe-inspiring. I thought I had learned a good deal about Lincoln in school and felt like I knew him. I guess I was wrong. Now, according to the Discovery Channel, Abraham Lincoln, Republican, and the 16th President of the United States was in reality, a Liberal Democrat. Moreover, not just any Liberal Democrat, he was slightly to the left of the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone.

The Discovery Channel produced a video that is displayed in the Lincoln Legacy Room at the Memorial. The video is for all who come to the Memorial to get a better understanding of what Mr. Lincoln stood for.

According to CNSNews, the video at the Lincoln Memorial "includes signs reading "Gay & Lesbian Sexual Rights," "Council of Churches Lesbian Rights," "National Organization for Women" (NOW), "Reagan's Wrongs Equal Women's Rights," "ERA Yes," "Ratify the Era," "I had an illegal abortion in 1967 - Never Again," "Keep Abortion Legal," "I am pro-choice America," a Vietnam-era video clip of a woman asking: "President Nixon where are our men?" and a sign reading, "Who will Decide NARAL (National Abortion Rights & Reproductive Action League) "In Opposition to King Richard [Nixon]," "U.S. out Now," "Equal Opportunity for All," "Peace," "Hell No We Won't Go," "No More Lies, Sign the Treaty Now Coalition," and marchers chanting U.S. Out Now". There was no showing of any opposing or contrary demonstrations except to show pro-life activists tangling with pro-abortionists.

All to the tune of "We Shall Overcome,"

There was a tendency among the young and impressionable to accept what they learn in school about our former Presidents. Whether it was the honesty of George Washington, the bravery of Teddy Roosevelt or the wit and wisdom of John F. Kennedy. It's not that we received a "complete" picture of the men, uh people, we just got what we needed. And what we got was based upon historical fact. Now, using the "What would Jesus Drive?" mentality, the folks on the Left have decided to extrapolate Abe Lincoln's views from the 1800's to their present day agenda's. Whether it is abortion on demand, Gay Rights, Gun Control, or not fighting communism, Honest Abe may not be with them in body, but he is in spirit.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. is part of the National Park Service and does not charge an entrance fee. In 2001, there were 4,115,139 visitors to the memorial and cost the taxpayers a little over 2 million dollars per year to maintain.

Nowadays it may be politically correct for students to question our government about everything they do, and to find nefarious motives present in any endeavor undertaken by the present Administration. It has gotten so bad that President Bush is viewed by some to be a greater danger than Saddam Hussein of Iraq, or Kim Jung Il of North Korea. Students don't learn to dislike their government innately; they have to be taught.

It isn't clear when it became trendy to teach Americans not just what was known by historical record, but to teach by opinion. We all know or at least have heard of other governments, those that lack self-esteem or are just plain paranoid, indoctrinating their citizens, both young and old to the party line.

It looks like the Left, knowing that their ideology cannot withstand being scrutinized or even questioned has undertaken the last policy of all totalitarians; they program their message to an audience without fear of being challenged during the indoctrination.

No one can know for a fact how Mr. Lincoln would feel today about any of the things the Left claims are part of his 19th century struggle against injustice. What we do know is that he was willing to go to war to keep America united. The Left, with their penchant to claim allegiance to a free and just land while they stifle any opposing views, can do little but divide America, not along the Mason-Dixon line, but rather our consciousness.

[rimmont]

The presentation of the national monuments and parks is completely infested with PC Marxism. Even, to some extent, at a seemingly innocuous place like Hoover Dam you will learn all about the Italian American family that made the terrazzo floors in the generator room and the fact that they incorporated Native American designs into it. But you will learn very little or nothing about the technology of the dam, or the technical history. Of course, more politically charged places like the Lincoln memorial or the Museum of American history are saturated with pc propaganda.

[Greybird]

[...] at a seemingly innocuous place like Hoover Dam you will learn all about the Italian American family that made the terrazzo floors in the generator room and the fact that they incorporated Native American designs into it. But you will learn very little or nothing about the technology of the dam, or the technical history.

You are entirely mistaken. I visited Hoover Dam for the first time this past October, including a recently vastly expanded visitors' center that shows every aspect of its history, as well as the geologic and wildlife context of the site.

The engineering efforts and innovations are central to what is told, whether in visual/tape-guided exhibits, in the main historical film, or in the tour. My interior guide spent nearly 10 full minutes in the generators' room talking about what strenuous efforts and unique construction was involved in creating them. Other guides outside showed what had to be tamed of the terrain and the physics of water in order to make the dam work. Even the charming Mexican-accented lady who described the Art Deco monument to the builders was perfectly conversant with the fine points of astronomy that were shown in the terrazzo foundation -- and I tried, and failed, to stump her on questions about some finer points.

Some of the statist twists may be working their way into such facilities as Civil War battlefields, but a work such as Hoover Dam is too overwhelming in its engineering achievement to do so. Let's not give up so easily.

[uncbuck]

"What we do know is that he was willing to go to war to keep America united. "

Exactly, no to fre the slaves. This was a POSITIVE outcome to the war, but not the sought after one.

Strike one up for the revisionist historians!

[gaijin]

Leftish homosexuals can't uncouple themselves from the story about Abe being so poor he once had to share a bed with a man; they toss out the "poor"-part, and just drool brainlessly away about, "in bed with another man".

Funny, though, I remember Steven Speilberg's bitter, leftish words during the Clinton impeachement hearings: he weant around Hollywood, shooting his mouth off about how he was going to make a revisionist movie about Lincoln, skewering the historical hero of the Republican party.

They can't get their signals straight, it seems....

[Grand Old Partisan]

The phrase "strange bedfellows" referred to (male) hotel guests having to sleep in the same bed, sometimes 4 or 5 in one big bed. Happened all the time way back when. Had nothing to do with homosexuality, and everything to do with no heat.

[stlrocket]

If Lincoln lived today?