This week “my” Citizenship class has been studying Abraham Lincoln. Today is his actual birthday. Here, a hundred and fifty years later, it is hard to separate the man from the myth.
I contend that myths often portray greater truths than bare facts can, truths that are not bound by a particular moment. Did he really say this? Doesn’t really matter. It was truth, then and, ominously, it rings true today. Honest Abe.
Prospective American citizens have to be able to speak and write English and this old English teacher loves teaching a bit of vocab. Sometimes the words are hard:
emancipation: the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation, for example, the emancipation of feminist ideas or the freeing of someone from slavery.
proclamation: a public or official announcement, especially one dealing with a matter of great importance, for example, Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union.