And so easily embellished.

I believe that it was in Texas where the Right Wing Extremeists got the History School Text Books revised to “Include a more Conservative View.”

Translation: Make History read in such a manner as to justify a fantasy world built on intransigence, lies, hatred and self-delusion. (Create a comfort zone if you will)

Wow, the same event had three different meanings depending on perspective!

I think you will discover that every event has at least three different meanings based on someone’s perspective:

(A) Democrats see things in the light of compassionate care for others.

(B) Republicans see things in light of compassionate care for themselves, their bank accounts and their rich friends.

(C) Radicals see things in light of what can be re-constructed from the ashes of what once was.

There seems to be scientific evidence that less than 5% of human beings are sociopaths/psychopaths [people lacking empathy for other human beings – – – –

I believe this addresses the main problem of Radical American Conservativism as practiced by some of the Obstructionists in Congress today.

Secondly, I read somewhere that The President wanted the slaves freed but that he has prepared a fleet of naval vessels for the purpose of shipping the freed slaves to Liberia or somewhere like that but he (The President) was assassinated before the plan could be completed.

It is like the old wives tale about Lincoln being a commoner with a substandard education who split logs and studied by candle light.

That might have been his beginnings, but by the time of the Emancipation Thing, he was a successful lawyer for some Railroads and was, no doubt, quite wealthy as well as educated.

Thank you for your reply. I think we have quite a bit of common ground. Although I am skeptical of any contention that human history shows humans are following a path of “progress,” there are arguments that can be made that human beings are becoming somewhat more ethical and compassionate (with great stumbles such as the genocides that we seem to have every couple of decades or so). Slavery (as you accurately summarize) is a good example of a custom well-accepted for thousands of years and which now strikes most of us as offensively absurd. (Interesting irony in American history — some slaves who were freed owned other slaves. Some Indians — the other most oppressed group in American history — also owned slaves. I often wonder how we — human beings — can stand ourselves.)

Another example of gradually changing values has to do with punishment and torture. I was just reading a book about Shakespeare and it cogently illustrates how popular public executions — of the most gory and dreadful details — were in Elizabethan times. Apparently people thought it great entertainment to go see someone have his guts, genitalia, and other vital parts ripped out while still alive. We still have public and widespread horror — the stuff going on in places such as Darfur and Mexico are cogent examples — but by and large our sensibilities have changed to the extent that we shed a tear when the pet dog or cat is run over. We are indeed a very strange species.