Factoid: Lincoln was asked by his own party to step down and not run for re-election in 1864.
Commented on HuffPost: Why Judd Gregg’s Change of Heart Was a Birthday Present to Lincoln’s Protégé –
“Thanks for the refreshing post, running somewhat against the grain of most of the splinter heads in the media (take that! Fox and MSNBC and all in between). Now is the time for the center cut of America to step up and eschew all the fringes. We should be partisans only for all of America, as is our President.”
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
More of my babbling: The State of Israel, the US Air Force, the hydrogen bomb, and myself are all roughly the same age. In those 60 odd years, we have all seen maybe a dozen moments, that in retrospect, could have gone a different way, and literally could have changed the fabric of the universe. A new shirt, or wads of tangled, smoldering thread drifting through the cosmos waiting for another set of complex hydrocarbons to make a stand. We are at one of those times.
When I was 12, I heard the “Ask not…” call, and it thrust me into a state of consciousness that has been both a blessing and a source of intense pain. But the bottom line is, that each of us can, on some level, or with some degree of success, absolutely change the way the electrons spin around the center.
Make a difference? Absolutely. One more important than another? Sometimes, briefly. Have an effect if you say “No, thanks.”? Impossible. That is not to say that “Just say No.” is not often the right answer, and itself can be a game changer. But to slip out of the ring because there might be a problem, or because things might not go perfectly, is unthinkable to me. Now is not the time to drop out.
I believe that Frodo was right not to kill Gollum when he had the chance, because you never know when even the most vile creature can, for all the wrong reasons, cause the right thing to happen. If all this appears to be psycho-literary-elitist babble, then you are just not reading enough history. Final answer. Locked in. “If not now, when? If not us, who?”
Green Hills of Earth 