Sojourner Truth Statue Placed In Capitol Visitors Center

She lived for nearly 90 years. She never stopped fighting to extend the rights and protections of our democracy. She preached against capital punishment and advocated for prison reform. She recruited African American troops for the Union Army. She helped to desegregate the streetcars that ran through Washington, and she worked diligently to improve living conditions for freed men and women.
She did not know how to read or write. Her life was from the most humble and improbable circumstances. But she ended up counting President Lincoln and President Grant among her acquaintances. She never, never, despite what she went through, stopped believing in the promise of liberty. She lived long enough to see the end of slavery, but not the establishment of voting rights for women. The 19th Amendment would not be passed until 37 years after her death. But today, she takes her place in this Capitol, and we are the better for it.
Was any person ever better named? Think about it. She is a sojourner of truth, by truth, and for truth. And her words, her example, and her legacy will never perish from this earth, so long as men and women stand up and say loudly and clearly: We hear you echoing down through the years of history, we believe that your journey is not yet over, and we will make the rest of that journey with you. God bless the memory of Sojourner Truth."
This from the US State Department website.

First Lady Michelle Obama joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other lawmakers and dignitaries on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to unveil a bust of Sojourner Truth, the 19th-century slave turned abolitionist who was also a fiery advocate for women’s rights.
Mrs. Obama praised Ms. Truth as a woman who didn’t allow “indignities to destroy her spirit,’’ who fought for her own freedom, the freedom of others and for women’s right to vote. She said the bust, which will appear in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitors Center, would inspire many young African Americans who visit the Capitol.
“And just as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott would be pleased to know that we have a woman serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the First Lady of the United States of America,’’ Mrs. Obama said. “We are all here because, as my husband says time and time again, we stand on the shoulders of giants like Sojourner Truth.”
From the New York Times

A speech delivered 1851 Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio :

Ain't I a Woman?

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

- Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

Control Your Cat

I'm going right to Amazon and get me one of these !

Pity The Nation By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti has been around a long time (since Great Britain was just Pretty Good Britain) and he's always made sense.............. like so :

PITY THE NATION

Pity the nation whose people are sheep, and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

- by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 2007 (inspired by Khalil Gibran’s poem of the same title)

Gee ! It looks like from my counter, that people are looking here once in a while , so................... thank you folks who are looking, for looking.

I Say Nuts To The Teabagging Insanitea !

This is right up there with the terrorist fist bump, she touched the Queen, freedom fries, Sarah Palin, purple band-aids, spilling French wine, Joe the Plumber, and burning Dixie Chicks Cd's. We don't need to mock these loony tooners, they set em up and knock em down all on their own. Imagine, what idiot thought up teabagging as a political statement ? The original tea party was to protest taxation WITHOUT representation. The elected representatives of the people of this country already DID / ARE voting for the very things these Goober Pyles are protesting. They are simply confusing tyranny with losing an election. All this is only necessary because of the crimes of the last administration, one that most of these self styled patriots likely supported. Leave it to Faux News to push this kind of foolishness.

Andrew Sullivan summarized it this way : "These are not tea-parties. They are tea-tantrums. And the adolescent, unserious hysteria is a function not of a movement regrouping and refinding itself. It's a function of a movement's intellectual collapse and a party's fast-accelerating nervous breakdown."

From John Devore at Horses Ass :

What would be interesting to know is the thought process, such as it is, that inspires teabagging. Sure, they’ll blather about “out of control government spending,” but they didn’t give a flying fig about it during the last administration and if someone today dares to talk about reforming the defense procurement system then the teabag noise machine starts in about “threatening America’s safety.”
So it’s really “government spending on things they don’t like that helps people they don’t like” that pisses them off. Wasting trillions on weapons systems that don’t work and invading countries that shouldn’t have been invaded was just fine with them.

Says Declan McCullagh:
But the problem with the Tea Party movement is that the same complaints can be lodged against former President George W. Bush. It was the Bush administration that bailed out AIG; it bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; it bailed out Citigroup; it bailed out Bear Stearns. And it was the Bush administration that pressed Congress to bail out Detroit automakers.
Where were those hand-printed signs last week -- or last year -- assailing "BushNomics?" Where were these same conservatives when the Republicans and the Federal Reserve were on a bailout bender last year? Or when the GOP doubled the size of the federal debt?

Climb on the sore loser express ! I say nuts to em'.

Wingnuts - Fanning The Flames And Killing People

This today from a quite reserved and restrained Rude Pundit :

Richard Poplawski shot and killed three police officers before being arrested in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He legally owned an assault weapon and two handguns, despite being booted from the Marines for being too violent. Poplawski was a young man convinced the nation was secretly controlled by a cabal that would eradicate freedom of speech, take away his guns and use the military to enslave the citizenry.

Conservatives are running scared because the left is seeing a connection, especially with Poplawski, between the violent, apocalyptic rhetoric of the right.

Jesus Christ, nut up, right wingers. You can't say that we're heading towards revolution and that gun laws are harming America, but, hey, we don't want violence. No, you can't walk around naked with a raging hard-on, but then say you don't wanna fuck something. There's times when you don't get to decide what your words actually mean; there's times when others take your words and actions to logical conclusions whether you meant it or not. Toss in a depr/recession and a touch of crazy and, well, boom. So at least admit that you squirted a little lighter fluid onto the fire.

and with another opinion on the same subject is David Neiwert at Crooks And Liars :

You have to wonder if right-wingers will ever get it: Difference isn't a threat. Because we believe in freedom of speech and freedom of thought, there will probably always be haters like Richard Poplawski among us. Inevitably they will be driven by fear: the fear of difference. Because to them, difference of any kind is a threat.

They were mewling like wounded hyenas this weekend after some of us pointed out that there was a direct connection between the irresponsible fearmongering in which they've been indulging since Barack Obama was elected and Saturday's tragedy in Pittsburgh.
We strongly believe that there's a clear, common-sense connection between the paranoiac fearmongering that has passed for right-wing rhetoric since well before Obama's election (and has become acute since) and violence like that in Pittsburgh, or in Knoxville: horrifying tragedies, in which the sources of the criminal's unambiguous motives are that very same hysterical fearmongering -- whether it's about the evil socialists, stinking immigrants, or conspiring gun-grabbers who've taken over the country since Election Day.

And yes, Glenn Beck deserves some mention here. His fearmongering on the gun issue is noteworthy in itself. I'm sure we all remember the time he speculated that these shooters were just ordinary citizens frustrated by "the system" and "political correctness."

At the same time, the unrelenting meme being pushed by the right that Obama will mount an assault on the Second Amendment has helped fuel the panic buying of firearms. According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year.

Needless to say, President Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for the Second Amendment and opposes a ban on firearms in the United States.

And from across the big water, read what The British Observer has to say :

The American right-wing machine has cranked up its engine of evil to prevent Obama from doing what needs to be done. I get Fox News on what you can refer to as cable, and it is clear that there is a systemic attempt to muster and organise against Obama’s agenda. Now, organising against the Democratic agenda is not in itself a bad thing. It is only right that in a healthy and functional democracy there exist a strong and viable opposition, laying their cards on the table. However, what we witness now is not the laying of cards, but rather: IRRATIONAL HATRED. The kind of hatred that Clinton faced and that Kennedy before him faced. The kind of right-wing hatred that propels individuals to shoot up schools and immigration centres under the demonstrably false contention that the election of Barack Obama, America’s first black President, would herald a drop in their standard of living, a standard that had already received permanent residency in the toilet after W.’s first term. The kind of hate that pushes duly elected member of America’s legislative arm to call for "revolutions" or to accuse the President of the United States of being a "socialist". The kind of hate that leaves the American secret service no choice but to put in place an unimaginable security regime around the American President just to ensure a Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity inspired lunatic does not turn everybody’s worst nightmare into reality.

A little more on the Pittsburgh shooter :
Accused cop-killer Richard Poplawski spent hours posting racist messages on an extremist right-wing Web site, decrying blacks and Latinos and warning of forthcoming economic collapse fueled by the "Zionist occupation" of America, an expert in political extremism has determined. Earlier, he had praised the "AK" rifle as his ideal weapon.

On March 13, according to the site, Mr. Poplawski wrote a lengthy post predicting economic collapse, engineered by a Jewish conspiracy:

"The federal government, mainstream media, and banking system in these United States are strongly under the influence of -- if not completely controlled by -- Zionist interest," the post declares. "An economic collapse of the financial system is inevitable, bringing with it some degree of civil unrest if not outright balkanization of the continental US, civil/revolutionary/racial war . . . This collapse is likely engineered by the elite Jewish powers that be in order to make for a power and asset grab."

So , not just another nutty crazed gunman, and not a guy who " flipped out when the dog pissed on the rug ". Let the blame fall where it should.

"Suffocation, Due To A Cat Sucking The Breath From The Deceased's Mouth".

Superstition seems to have had, or to have , no limits.

From the Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) Dispatch of March 11 1907:

"Suffocation, due to a cat sucking the breath from the deceased's mouth". That will be the Deputy Coroner's report entered in county records this morning in the case of the death Tuesday night of Bennenita Maria Delu, aged 6 months and 1 day, at Clarksville, Penn Township, Allegheny County, Pa. Old housewives, wise in mother's lore, will tell you the story that a cat will inhale the breath from an infants mouth till the little one smothers but no previous record of such a fatality is to be found in the Allegheny County Coroners office. Little Bennenita's father is Evasio Delu, a coal miner in Clarksville; the mother, Pierena Delu, keeps a little grocery store in the mining hamlet. The parents reported the death of the child yesterday morning. Deputy Coroner Thomas H. Laidley investigated the case.The mother told the Deputy that she had rocked the baby to sleep in her arms early Tuesday evening and then had carried the child into the room in the back of the store and laid it in the cradle. Fifteen minutes later she happened into the room again and found the house cat nestled on the baby's breast, it's nostrils glued to the little one's mouth. She snatched the cat away, then tried to arouse the child, but could not."

Bad kitty !.......bad !.........now you go lay down ! ......go.... lay.... down ! .....killing people, no no ......bad kitty !

Happy Birthday My Good Brother John

I have been down with a nasty flu virus for the last 4-5 days, mostly either sleeping, retching into a bag or running thru the back yard to the little building with the quarter moon cut out on the door. So it was that I forgot my good brother's birthday yesterday, he's ten years older than I am. He's been laying around comfortably in Florida all winter, the term Snowbird being defined by him and Mollie. And there's really nothing I could buy him because last month he got the ultimate gift from his Pittsburgh Steelers - a sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy !

I call him my good brother because he's good to his family, his children and grandchildren. He is enjoying every day of a well earned and well deserved retirement.

Happy Birthday Pollock !

This Scalds My Ass !

I'm gonna tell you what scalds my ass , a headline in my local newspaper today read " Republicans Predict Doomsday If Budget Ok'd." Now lookie here, they ran congress for many years, also the White House since 2000. They ran us into the fucking ditch we are in and so how in the world do they presume to come off giving advice on how to clean up the shit they made ? I say let them cry crocodile tears but still, it scalds my ass. This is kind of a midnight drunken rant that I in no way apologize for.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

You gotta love the way the human mind works sometimes. These folks from Wales took sheep and attached LED vests to them and herded them around on a far hill to produce amazing patterns, a game of pong, fireworks and even the Mona Lisa. As someone said " Sheep , not just for sex anymore ".

Midnight Music Club # 6 - Brandon Petrucci

My old friend Brandon is one talented son of a gun. He toured / followed the Dead for years. Now he is settled with a good woman. May we all have that blessing...............

Blog Against Theocracy, Coming April 10 - 12 2009

Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors, wrote the best concise description of this blogswarm last year:
The theme [of the blogswarm], like always, is the Separation of Church and State — we are for it. But the variations on the theme are many...This is not a bashing of religion - peeps can believe what they choose, however they choose — but it is a reminder that the Government should keep out of religion, and Religion should keep out of the government.

The Lure of the Open Road

I happened across this story of two young women who, in 1944, set out on a journey to see the country. These bold young ladies travelled on bicycles, slept in barns and cemeteries and washed in streams. Taking different part time jobs along the way, they hitchhiked rides with truck drivers and worked from Louisville to New Orleans as chambermaids on a steam towboat. They then bicycled across the south to Florida and back to their home at Buffalo. With many quaint snapshot photographs, it is a charming story of a kindlier gentler America, one that was much safer then and more optimistic, even in the midst of a great war.

Willowby was our breakfast stop. At 8:00 a.m. the townspeople were preparing for the business day ahead. Brooms swept the papers fluttering to the curb. Water splashed from the window washers’ buckets and ran in little streams down to the curb. A white-aproned clerk piled pyramids of golden oranges against the window. Beneath was the freshly-painted sign, "Oranges - 5 cents." We went inside and bought the two biggest oranges we could find.
The village square was a convenient breakfast spot. We lined up the meal on a park bench. The bran flakes were dry, the oranges pithy. I chopped off another lump from the petrified sugar in the bag. It had weathered the storm, too. Then we filled our canteens at the gas station to wash cups and spoons.


Getting a lift on a chicken truck

As the sun rose, the driver left us off on Route 80, where we might catch another truck. The first one we hailed stopped and took us on to Tuskegee.
Now over 50 years later, as we read the news and watch the television reports of abductions that take place today, we wonder. Were we courageous or just naive? Or was it our outlook, our spirit, the happiness we exuded that carried us along in safety ? We stationed ourselves at a gas pump again. This time we secured a ride headed directly to Atlanta, Georgia, with two fellows driving a chicken truck. Now we’ve had about every variety of vehicle! They tied our bikes on top of the chicken crates.


Visiting newly disabled soldiers in Georgia

Two boys met us, Felix and Larry, one in a wheelchair and the other on crutches, each minus a leg. Each had a red rose for us. I’ll never forget that. These boys escorted us around. First, we went to their ward, where all their mates had similar injuries. Most all of them lost their limbs on Anzio Beachhead invasion in Italy. In the Physical Therapy ward, they were exercising muscles so they would be conditioned to using artificial limbs. Then to the place where they made the prostheses and witnessed a fellow being fitted to an arm and hand. As we pushed the wheelchairs around, we were surprised to see the good fun and cheerfulness the boys had in spite of their life-changing experiences and challenging future ahead of them.



On The Steamer Corrigidor


There are always little feelings or sensations associated with events that help one to remember experiences more vividly. Perhaps I shall always remember the vibrations of the engines and the sound like a train riding the tracks, the smell of certain closed rooms above the hot brig, the shrill voice of Mrs. Lynch above the engine noise, and Tommy’s listless face at breakfast after only five hours sleep. And I’ll remember the luxury of taking a handful of cookies, dipping up a tall glass of milk and eating a whole cantaloupe. I’ll remember trying to understand the southern accent, chopping ice in the chill box, scrubbing black marks from the red linoleum, counting soiled linen in the lounge, and seeing the rigging bared against a sky full of stars! I’ll remember how the deck hands were always painting; the stuffed feeling around the belt after Wednesday’s and Sunday’s dinner of southern fried chicken, followed by two soup bowls of ice cream; our rush to the guard in our excitement to see anything new that happened, followed by a severe lecture from Mrs. Lynch; and the bliss of having electric fans in the summer heat. And, too, I have seen the factions and bargaining developed by the union aboard ship, heard the many tales told by Captain Stroube in the pilot house, and listened to his words of wisdom founded upon years of river boating. The ripple of a full moon’s reflection upon the Mississippi, the churn of the water by the propellers, the heat of the engine room and the sweat pouring off the men’s backs, and perhaps most of all, the sound of the throttle bells as the speed of the boat changed. I’ll remember making up sooty beds and folding black towels, putting dishes away in the wrong place, and finding a pail that doesn’t leak. I’ll remember the desolate shores and the sandbars, the tow caught there, the shanty boats and the willows. I’ll remember taking the second bell for meals and catching the beds in between. Yes, there are many things to remember. It will be impossible to forget.


The entire story, titled The Lure of the Open Road.Wartime wandering through the Eastern states by bicycle, truck, and riverboat. 1944,by Thelma Popp Jones. 2007, is here.

US Airways 1549 - Hudson River Plane Landing - Animation with Audio

These folks are trained professionals so don't try this at home. This is an animation of the emergency landing with the actual audio. Every one involved is as cool minded as anyone could be.

Happy 24th Birthday, My Son

February 27th is the birthday of my child Casey. Here he is digging in the dirt in the backyard at the log house, wearing jeans and his pea coat with the flag pin his Grandad made sure he always wore. He was a cute little tow headed bugger when he was young.



At age nineteen he was elected Mayor of his hometown, when he was a sophomore political science major at the University there. Today, in addition to being Mayor and an active volunteer fireman he is the Borough Manager of a small nearby town. His Father, Mother, Stepfather and all the rest of his family are very proud of him. You've grown up to be a good and useful person Pieboy !



Senator Bob Casey, D - Pennsylvania and my son Casey. Watch out Senator , some one's sniffing after your job !

Socks, The Clinton White House Cat, Passes On

In this March 19, 1994 photo, Socks the cat peers over the podium in the White House briefing room

BALTIMORE – Socks, the White House cat during the Clinton administration who waged war on Buddy the pup, has died. He was around 18. Socks had lived with Bill Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie, in Hollywood, Md., since the Clintons left the White House in early 2001.
Currie confirmed Socks' death Friday evening and said she was "heartbroken." She did not give details, referring calls to the Clinton Foundation office. The foundation released a statement from the Clintons: "Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere. We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."
Socks had reached his late teens, an advanced age for a cat, when reports surfaced in late 2008 that he had cancer and Currie had ruled out invasive efforts to prolong his life. Socks was what feline-lovers call a tuxedo cat, mostly black with white down the front and belly and on his feet, suggesting a fashionable dandy in a black satin evening jacket with a snowy shirt peeping out. He had markings that looked a bit like a mustache and goatee.
Chelsea Clinton's pet first appeared in the news in November 1992 after then Gov. Bill Clinton won the presidency and the family was the still in the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Ark. Socks became an early symbol of privacy vs. media in the Clinton era when photographers got a little aggressive as he took a stroll outside.
Life changed for Socks in the White House, when his easy access to the out-of-doors was necessarily curtailed. One official conceded that, yes, Socks was on a leash while outside.
Things took a turn for the worse in late 1997, when then-puppy Buddy, a chocolate retriever, arrived. Relations between Socks and Buddy were cool from the beginning. "I'm trying to work that out," Clinton joked at the time. "It's going to take a while. It's kind of like peace in Ireland or the Middle East." A few weeks later, in early 1998, the two pets had an encounter on the South Lawn. "A very agitated Buddy approached the cat and began barking as the president restrained him with a green leash," The Associated Press reported. "Socks, hair raised high, stood his ground until Clinton and Buddy made their exit to the Oval Office." But their pairing enchanted pet lovers, especially children. In 1998, then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton put out a book of children's letters to the two pets in "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy." "Can you please send me a picture and a paw print," one youngster wrote Socks. "Do you have fleas? I think my cat has fleas." In the book, the first lady wrote she had been taking daughter Chelsea to a piano lesson in spring 1991 when they spotted two kittens in the music teacher's front yard. "The black one with white paws, Socks, jumped right into (Chelsea's) arms," she wrote.
After the Clintons left in early 2001, Socks moved in with Currie. Buddy, meanwhile, made the move with the Clintons to Chappaqua, N.Y., but he was struck and killed by a car the following year. Socks continued to live quietly with Currie, sometimes making appearances at programs held by pet welfare groups. Landau said Socks enjoyed sitting in the sun and that Currie doted on him, cooking him special chicken dinners.

By Associated Press Writer Kasey Jones

Nice, I think pets are , as they say friends are, God's way of apologizing for your family.

Golden Retriever In Cut Off Jeans

My friend Tooch has a beautiful and maniacal golden retriever named Ruxpin. The other day, at the tender age of 13 months he was fixed. To keep him from scratching at the stitches Tooch rigged up a pair of cut off jeans, with a hole for the tail, for him to wear.

Happy Valentines Day

I've been a collector all my life and old paper holds a fascination for me. Here are two beautiful old valentines I've had for years.

This one is dated 1901 and is die cut.

It seems as though back then that hearts were not as common a motif as flowers.

Midnight Music Club # 4 - Dan Hicks - I Scare Myself

He may be the only really hip person there is. Dan Hicks was with San Francisco band The Charlatans and left in 1968 to form Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks with violinist David LaFlamme. This band was a cult favorite because of their both funny and wonderful original songs. My favorite release from that time is "Last Train To Hicksville." Dan works with only the best players and singers and the way they work is amazing. In a live show the music is enhanced by their low key antics. Here's the band doing "I Scare Myself" :

Happy Birthday A. Lincoln - We Honor You, Cracks And All

He was in his time the most popular and the most disliked American. "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." , explained James Cornelius, curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. He is now, without question, our most beloved and respected citizen.

"Looking For Lincoln" is Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s quest to piece together Lincoln’s complex life. The 2-hour documentary airs on PBS television on Feb. 11, 2009, it can be viewed online now here in it's entirety. There are over 14,000 biographies of Lincoln, more than on any other person in the worlds history. In this new PBS video we see a Lincoln that will disappoint some and enrage at least a few. Viewers will find not an iconic hero but a human with all the normal faults and fears ( and sometimes extreme fears ) that we all have.
Lincoln has been described as the representative American, he's a representative human and like all a mixture of elements of courage and fear, wisdom and folly, accomplishments and mistakes. Many of his speeches were poetry and his personal writings were sublime in their wisdom and sensitivity. Witness :

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

A progressive theorist but coldly realistic thinker who stayed within and shared many of the accepted prejudices of his time. One will see here some cracks and chips in the complexion of the marble iconic figure that carried the nation on his back for over four years. Acknowledging these cracks does not diminish his place in history nor the value of either his service or his example to us.
Bob Dylan said " Woody Guthrie was my first hero, he taught me that there were no heroes." People are only human, but some, when needed, when called by History, like Lincoln, can be heroic.

Cold / Warm - Cat In A Box

When it was doing this outside



Shadow aka Pete the neighbor cat came inside to find a warm spot for a nap.

Laying in a warm bed of antique papers.