By: Marilyn Burge To: Robert Berndt Re: Abe Lincoln RB To all who think that Abe Lincoln h

By: Marilyn Burge
To: Robert Berndt
Re: Abe Lincoln

 RB> To all who think that Abe Lincoln hated religion, you
 RB> might find this interesting......

 RB> A Proclamation
 RB> From the President
 RB> For a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer 1863

 RB> In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused
 RB> the seal of the United States to be affixed.

 RB> By his excellency

 RB> ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 RB> President of the United States of America

I guess it's time somebody told you the facts of life.  If you
read the first paragraph of that proclamation more carefully,
you'll see that it was AT THE REQUEST OF THE CONGRESS!  It
was undoubtedly penned by a congressional aide at the behest
of his boss, a congressman.  It is then nit-picked by other
congressional staffers and congressmen of a sympathetic mind,
then sent to the prez for his signature.

That's the way these things are done.  The president simply
doesn't have the time nor the inclination for such petty
proclamations; he's got a country to run.  So long as the
proclamation in question has been read by his staffers and
not found to contain anything that would be an outright
embarrassment to him, he'll sign any such proclamation that
crosses his desk.  It simply isn't worth the loss of political
points to do anything else, and he may need somebody from the
other side of a political issue on his side in the future.
Having signed the proclamation, he knows that when that day
comes, he can call in at least one hostile vote, and perhaps
a dozen, depending on how many people were involved in the
instigation of the proclamation.

That's called "politics."  It's the same now as it was then.
Politics is the art of compromise.  So long as I can compromise
a personal conviction and obtain your personal vote in the future,
I'll do it.  If I'm unable to stomach such trade-offs, I'm not
a politician, and I won't get elected dog catcher.

The proclamation in question didn't cost Lincoln a thing; the
taxpayers bought and paid for both the ink and the quill with
which he signed the document.  They also paid for the parchment
on which it was written.  All it cost him was a very slight
risk of writer's cramp for the few seconds it took him to affix
his signature to the document.

Or do you really think that the chippy-chaser we've got in the
White House now truly believes in family values when he agrees
to sign a blatantly unconstitutional bill that has great appeal
to the far right?


... Talk is cheap - Because supply exceeds demand.

 * Origin: So What's Yer Point? (1:105/40.666)