February 12, 2009 Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln



Thinking about our best loved president always brings with it memories of second grade at Stourbridge Elementary, the two-story, red-brick sturdy square of a building that housed grades one through five, the hissing radiators, drafty windows, scuffed wooden floors, smell of chalk and drying wool, the thick white paste, the black and manila construction paper we used to turn Lincoln and his tall hat into a silhouette that would get hung up along the top of the blackboard, a long row of nearly identical Lincolns with our names printed on the back, hidden from view. We loved Lincoln watching over our classroom. We loved the proud way he made us feel about our country. He made us believe in goodness. And, somehow, he still does that for me. He might be the familiar face on our humble copper penny, but his value to all of us, the American people, is so much more than flimsy paper bills with large denominations, more than silver, more than gold; for us, his value is immeasurable. Today do one thing in keeping with who he was, something that would make him proud to call you his friend and fellow American.