Plaque at V.A.

[DanielC]

Offensive quote?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/03/va-...-says.html

[RJNorton]

Hi Dan. Given the times it was said, it sure does not come across as offensive to me. Just my opinion.

[DanielC]

I agree 100% Roger!

[AussieMick]

Perhaps some people might want to update these words " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" ?

[David Lockmiller]

(02-03-2018 04:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Hi Dan. Given the times it was said, it sure does not come across as offensive to me. Just my opinion.

It is absolutely not offensive. Lincoln made the quote during the American Civil War. Is there anyone that cannot comprehend that the statement was appropriate for the time?

This is another "tempest in a teapot" for those who enjoy quibbling.

Perhaps we can mollify the persons so offended by having the following story chiseled in underneath the Lincoln quote at all VA Hospitals throughout the country. I knew of the story from the Emanuel Hertz book. But I have promised myself not to quote from this book without better authority corroborating the authenticity. I found such a reference in the "Transactions of the Oneida Historical Society at Utica, Volumes 6-10" at page 133. This was the record of a speech given to the society with an undetermined date by the Honorable Thomas L. James. The text states that "[t]he speaker related a number of anecdotes showing Lincoln's sympathy, as told by Col. Charles H. Page."

A young girl had enlisted as a boy in an Indiana regiment and had served more than a year, when she was severely wounded at Fredericksburg and her sex was discovered. After she was discharged from the hospital, she was denied further service in the ranks under the rules, and she had long tried in vain to get the four months' pay due her. At last she appealed to the President. After patiently listening to her story, the President asked: "My child, how came you to enlist?"

"Oh, Mr. President, I wanted to do something for my country."

Mr. Lincoln looked at the wounded girl for a moment, and then, he wrote and handed her the following note: "C. P. Andrews, Paymaster-General: Examine the rolls and ascertain whether this girl is entitled to four moths' pay as a soldier. If she is, pay her at once and do not send her from one paymaster to another. If there is no law to justify you, I will indemnify you. A. Lincoln."

[Gene C]

I'm with you guys. Thanks for sharing the story David.
I think the vast majority of us respect and are thankful to all who serve our country through the military and associated services.

I would be interested with what some of the ladies on the forum think about this.
And if you disagree with some of the views already expressed, we will be respectful, it's your forum too.

[L Verge]

This is one woman who is sick and tired of the erasing of historic events, sayings, statues, etc. in order to appease new generations of "thinkers" who do not know their history and have to insert their opinions on gender, race, religion, and other "hot topics" into every facet of our lives.

While some are very legitimate complaints, many others are just attention-getting complaints, imo. Their unfounded objections are what is offensive to me. If these folks are so smart, they would know to judge things in the context of the times in which they occurred.

There are very serious problems in our society that need to be addressed more than judging the quote made 150 years ago. Within the VA itself, spend the money that is going to go into legal fees on this issue instead on the medical care that is so badly needed for the growing number of veterans.

[ELCore]

I believe a sizable portion of the American population today would consider all of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address to be grossly offensive.

[David Lockmiller]

(02-04-2018 08:27 AM)ELCore Wrote:  I believe a sizable portion of the American population today would consider all of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address to be grossly offensive.

I must respectfully disagree.

"Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."

. . .

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

[L Verge]

I am afraid that I have to agree with ElCore on this. For some reason, a part of our society feels that it is their purpose in life to protest anything that comes down the pike. Just take a trip to Washington, D.C. Even if it is not a thousand person (notice that I am being politically correct and not saying "man") march on something, the protest movement lives on night and day in areas such as Lafayette Park at the White House's back door -- and it's been that way for decades, so it's not just a phenomenon that can be placed at Trump's feet.

Unfortunately, a sizable portion of our population today would probably be at a loss to even quote one line of Lincoln's Second Inaugural, and others likely would not even know who Lincoln was or what an inaugural address is. I believe that I have posted before about my experience with one 6th grade class that was visiting Surratt House and did not even know who Abraham Lincoln was until I produced a penny and a $5 bill. Finally, one young man said, "Oh yeah. That's the dude on the money." In the same vein, I have encountered children who only know the Lincoln Memorial as the place where Martin Luther King gave his I Have A Dream speech -- which is fine, but I certainly would like them to know why the Memorial was chosen for that stage.

[JMadonna]

You can't please everyone so let the original stand.

I remember a line from a TV show in which the company's motto was 'Profits before People'. It was engraved in stone in the lobby but written in Latin because it was 'classier'.