As if we needed another reason to win the White House in 2008, think about this: on Memorial Day 2009, there will be a rededication of the Lincoln Memorial. The current plan calls for the 44th President of the United States to speak at the Memorial on the 87th anniversary of its original dedication in 1922.
Years ago, my mother gave me a book of poems that had been given to her by her father when she was very young. In it is a poem, "Lincoln, Man of the People" by Edwin Markham. According to the text that accompanied the poem:
"This revised version was chosen out 250 Lincoln poems by the committee headed by Chief Justice Taft -- was chosen to be read at the dedication of the great Lincoln Memorial erected by the government in Washington, D.C.
This was in 1922. There were 100,000 listeners on the ground and two million over the radio. President Harding delivered the address, and Edwin Markham read the poem. It is taken from his volume, 'Lincoln, and
Other Poems', published by Doubleday, Page and Company -- copyrighted 1900, by the author, and used by his permission."
I sent this information about Edwin Markham’s poem to the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission at: .Lincoln Bicentennial Commission They responded with an email saying they would consider having someone read the poem as part of the rededication. I hope so, it is a wonderful poem.
The president who speaks at this rededication must be a Democrat. It is ghastly to me to imagine that one of the current gaggle of possible Republican presidential candidates could somehow win and then be free to talk to the nation about the great Abraham Lincoln. It is a thought too horrible to contemplate