The Languish Anguish

Did you know?

Believe it or Not

The first inventor of the comic strip was not Gary Trudeau, Bill Watterson or Charles Schultz.

Would you believe it was actually our 16th President of the United States? The President who led the Union through the American Civil War to defend the nation as a constitutional union and succeeded in abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy? (wk)

Wow. And. Whoa.

It matters not that he was born into poverty, into a log cabin in Kentucky. Not that he was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana.

He was home schooled before it was en vogue, or a “thing”. He was self-educated and became a lawyer. He was a Whig Party leader, State Legislator and U.S. Congressman from the State of Illinois. He left the political scene to concentrate on a life of law and order, peace and justice. (wk)

In 1854, he became angered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act opened the territories to slavery, and Mr. Lincoln re-entered politics. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

Why?

Because Abraham Lincoln became angry. So. He fought back.

Democratic Senator, Stephen A. Douglas drafted , and passed by the 33rd United States Congress, signed into law by President Franklin Pierce. Douglas introduced the bill intending to open up new lands to develop and facilitate the construction of transcontinental railroad, however the Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, stoking national tensions over slavery, and contributing to a series of armed conflicts known as “Bleeding Kansas”. (wk)

The Act, and the tensions over slavery it inflamed, were key events leading to the American Civil War.

Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring Missouri. Their influence in territorial elections was bolstered by resident Missourians who crossed into Kansas solely for voting in such ballots. Groups such as the “Blue Lodges, border ruffians—pro-slavery raiders, and “jayhawkers” crossed from the slave state of Missouri into the Kansas Territory, to help ensure Kansas entered the Union as a slave state.

Slave State: In the United States, before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal and domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited.(wk)

Thank you Abraham Lincoln for paying attention to the difference.

Just before the Civil War, there were 19 free states and 15 slave states. During the war, slavery was abolished in some of these jurisdictions, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in December 1865, finally abolished slavery throughout the United States.(wk)

Thank you Abraham Lincoln for paying attention.

However. The “funny” thing about wounds of that time and now time is they ran and run deep. To this day.

Thank you Abraham Lincoln for remaining skeptical. For questioning right and wrong. Lincoln was a religious skeptic. He questioned religious authority, was not necessarily anti-religious, but pondered deeply the practices and beliefs.(wk)

We did mention he was self-educated…..Self-taught. Street smart too.

A stellar communicator, imperfect individual. He did not put himself above his fellow man, his fellow man’s times, his fellow man’s struggles. He did not criticize, demean or knock down.

It has been said, in 1840, Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity. A belief that the human mind was controlled by a higher power.

Trailblazer in the introduction to the the field of mental health, societal health. Perhaps.

Lincoln relied on the freedom to question, to ask questions, to doubt as the foundation of dependence on and a solace with a higher order power. In the interest of Independence. The foundational belief of order in order to make sense of grief of persons mistreating one another. Sounds rather common sensical. And humane.

Oftentimes the only way through is through. Whether we like it or not. Abraham Lincoln chose not to stay in the victim circle because God had given him choice.(dk)

Choice he opined his fellow man is and must be allowed to practice, live and respect. Leaders who apply this principle know how complex it can be (dk).

Lincoln used this communication skills in discerning and knowing that during the hardest, heaviest and headiest of moments, sometime humor can diffuse the bomb before the explosion occurs.

Before:

The Anathematize Bomb Explosion.

Anathematize: The criticize something or someone strongly or say that he or she, or it is completely unacceptable. Harshly. Cuttingly. Meanly.

Great Communicators usually know this. Especially during times of great division. One could say the American Civil War would be one of those justified moments in history.

During a dreadful and serious historical moment in U.S. time during the Civil War, Lincoln called together a special session of his war cabinet members. During a very tense moment with the members Lincoln started the meeting by reading a humor story from the book. Lincoln laughed aloud. But no one else laughed.

Lincoln did not waver. He read another story. Silence again. Lincoln did not waver. He said, “Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh?” “With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.”

You need this medicine as much as I do.

The next document Lincoln read aloud was:

The Emancipation Proclamation. One of the most important documents in America’s history since the Constitution and Bill of Rights. If you happen to not know what the emancipation proclamation proclaims, perhaps hitting the history books is a prudent next step. For you.

The fight is always worth the fight when it is right. And just. For all.

Lincoln knew the value of humor. Along with its practical applications. Lincoln knew that levity does not negate the magnitude or seriousness of a situation, but rather helps us through it. Non labelling of course. Non color coded.

You need this medicine as much as I do.

Lincoln inherited his penchant for jokes and story telling from his Father. When he was a child, he loved to listen to his father and other men swap yarn around the wood stove. As he grew and matured he became adept at modification of the story to accommodate each situation.

In the spirit of levity, will leave with this note:

”How do you catch a squirrel”?🐿️🐿️

”Climb a tree and act like a nut”.😃😂

When all else fails, especially of ourselves. When giving the toast in our BFF’s honor, suffering through the twelve course meal for the sake of this cause or that cause, for the spoiled tuna canned instead of cooked to temperature, it may be most prudent when one must stand up while leaving the table in an aura of an aromatic stench, 😦😫😮‍💨💩to smile and say

”My apologies, that was me….”