Monday, November 8, 2010

My feet stood in Giant Footprints.



In a small park on the Western side of Quincy Illinois stands a monument to one of our nation's best public conversations ever seen.

The Lincoln/Douglas debates.

These things we call debates today don't hold a candle to the brilliant oratory and legitimate, personal arguments that made up the debates of old. The ideas and subjects weren't sanitized for your comfort. They didn't have oodles of spin doctors to avoid saying things that would cost them votes. They were honest and forthright, and yes, they were Giants That Walked The Earth.

I must look a proper fool when I stand on these historical grounds. Because I can hear the voices. I can hear the crowds. I breathe in the history.

And when I get sick at heart when I see what we've become, I am steadied by the study of the past...for nobility cannot be shaken by a clever quip, and shouting down the right thing because it's not the popular thing doesn't make it any less right.

The wheel turns.

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