February 12, 2008
Dear Abe: This is your 199th birthday! I feel very much acquainted with you, even though you lived here on earth many years ago. When I was in the U.S. Army, in 1942, I visited the one room log cabin in which you were born. It is now located in a beautiful park, named for you, near its original site by Hodgenville, KY. I couldn't believe how small it was. It seemed like a doll house. In Springfield, IL I have been in the white frame house where you lived for some 17 years before becoming president in 1861. It has been restored and is in excellent condition. And I visited your reconstructed law office. I could just see you strolling down the street from your home to your office. I have visited Washington, D.C. several times. Right now I am looking at a drawing showing you riding in a buggy in a procession heading toward the capitol building for your inauguration as president. The dome of the capitol was under construction at the time. One of the biggest attractions in Washington now is the Lincoln Memorial, west of the capitol and White House, overlooking the Potomac River. It is a beautiful white marble building resembling the Parthenon in Greece. And guess what? Inside there is a gigantic statue of you in a seated position, some 19 feet high. Standing at the eastern opening of the memorial, you can look down the long green mall and see all the way to the capitol building. There is now a monument to George Washington in the middle of the mall, the White House is to the left and there is now a memorial to Thomas Jefferson to the right. It was from this spot, overlooking the mall, that a civil rights leader by the name of Martin Luther King, on August 28, 1963, addressing over 200,00 people assembled on the mall, delivered his famous "I Had a Dream" speech. And do you know what? At this same spot, on February 12, 1998, when I was in Washington on my mission to personally see and photograph all of my elected officials, I delivered your now famous Gettysburg Address. It was early in the morning and about the only persons around were those making preparations for the celebration later in the day---but what a thrill! As I am writing this, my wife is cruising down the Nile River in Egypt. She could immediately read this message on a lap top computer while sitting in the boat . So our communications have greatly improved since back in your day, when mesages had to be delivered by person. Abe, as you were the first Republican president, you will be happy to know there is still a Republican party. And there is an election process going on right now. One thing that has certainly changed: in your day it was considered undignified for a candidate to campaign actively on his own behalf. And, can you believe it, women are now entitled to vote, and there is a woman running for president. We cherish many quotations from your speeches, and I would like to close with the immortal last words of your Gettysburg address: "That governement of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Thank you, Abe.
Sincerely, Larry Smith LSmith6100@kc.rr.com