Jonah is listening intently to Steve’s lecture on the causes of the Civil War.
Getting Lectured in the Lincoln Memorial
5 thoughts on “Getting Lectured in the Lincoln Memorial”
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Leave saving the world to the men? I don't think so.
Apt. 11d 
Steve, your work is done….(from one generation of history lovers to the next)
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Gorgeous family. And, I love that they are listening to their personal historian tell them about history. We have swathes of academics covered here, but not really any history.
You should try taking a selfie where you step away from the group, keeping them in the background and you in the foreground. Saw a very nice selfie taken that way recently. You have to be pretty comfortable with your own face to carry it off, though (the selfie I saw had a beautiful 21 year old in the foreground).
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I was walking Jonah through the Second Inaugural, which is carved into the right-hand side of the monument. A much more interesting text. We’re on the left-hand side; the Gettysburg Address is carved into the wall above us and to the left.
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“It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. ”
I hadn’t ever read the second inaugural . The Second Inaugural strikes me as somewhat passive aggressive. True? or my own naive reading? (A sentence that starts “It may seem strange” is a sign to me, as kind of like “if sorry if you’re offended, . . .”).
One of the benefits of our trips to DC has been a greater understanding of the role that slavery played in American history. It’s interesting how little we learned in HS. It’s only recently that I’ve learned the about the texts of declarations of the southern states (Mississippi’s use of the words of the Declaration of Independence for the right to sever the bonds to the nation, because the right to own slaves might be abridged was an eye-opener). Hearing that the first baby born in the White House was a slave (Thomas Jefferson’s slave, I believe), as was learning that Hercules, George Washington’s cook, escaped to freedom from the Philadelphia President’s house, reading the enumeration of slaves in Mt. Vernon, and George Washington’s planning to free them in his will, while protecting the property of his estate (and the property rights of his in-laws, in their slaves), . . . all new to me.
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Hmh, I see that wikipedia tells me that Hercules escaped from Mt. Vernon, and not the president’s house.
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