11.11.2012

Abe Lincoln

Handsome Abe
 Confession: I love Abraham Lincoln, sometimes a little obsessively. So I'm pretty stoked about the upcoming Stephen Spielberg production Lincoln. Unfortunately, it won't be released in any city near me until December or something like that.
 With this upcoming movie there has been so much buzz about little-known facts about this amazing man. He is fantastic. He is made up of the magic that presidents should all have. Some of his best qualities is his humility and his strength during a time of unease on uncertainty.
I stumbled across a story on Yahoo, "The endearing reason why Lincoln grew his beard".  It was because some 11 year old girl thought he should. She suggested that with a beard, he was more marketable to the adult male audience (in my own verbage of course). Lincoln not only took her advice, he went out of his way to write this girl a letter back. Now think about presidents of the present. If I wrote a letter to Obama right now about how he should dress or look. I would just get a standard email or letter back from the White House or something saying, "Thanks for your letter, you may or may not get a response back." and I bet 99,999 out of 100,000 times there isn't a real response back. Population arguments are a moot point. This was an 11 year old girl and he listened to her. I think that is fabulous!
In that same article, Mike Krumboltz talks about Lincoln's very un-regal presentation. In crowds and speeches he dressed normal with pants too high for his long legs and suit coats too wide for his thin frame.  How awesome is it that he didn't dress in designer clothes or grade A clothing. There could be any reason for this from a look at the economy back then or maybe he acted like a man and just put on what was comfortable. Whatever the reason, he looked like a true American at the time-frame--he looked real. 
It's hard for me to just name one reason when his strength as President helped the American people. I see his life and it looks like that's all he ever was. He was always strong.
There's the pinnacle moments that other people always cite: the Gettysberg Address, where he spoke on the same battlefield that thousands of men died for their country; the Emancipation Proclamation, which was a beginning to finally ending slavery in the United States; or what about actually uniting the States together after the war. Bringing them into a Union of United States. He essentially created our country (once again) from the division of war and disagreements. How much stronger can one man be?!
I loved reading the interviews and facts on the new movie. Lincoln is going to be amazing. Daniel Day-Lewis is acting as handsome Abraham Lincoln and you can't go wrong with DDL right? He mentioned in one of the interviews that he grew to love Abe Lincoln through his role.
The best quote came from Stephen Spielberg, “...Everybody should claim Lincoln as their own, because he represents all of us, and what he did basically provided the opportunities that, that all of us are enjoying today."(blogs.indiewire.com)
 

2 comments:

  1. Haha, funny how you posted about Abe. I remember I did a book report on him in elementary school. It is quite a shame that now days people don't really have strong values or beliefs. They aren't sincere like they were back in the day like good old Abe. Props to you Michelle. :)

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  2. That is interesting that you love Abe just like your Dad did

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