Socialists talk about Lincoln and Darwin

[dcsmart]

Lincoln and the struggle to abolish slavery
Alan Maass looks at what Abraham Lincoln deserves to be remembered for.

February 12, 2009

FEBRUARY 12 marks 200 years since Abraham Lincoln was born, and that's probably not news to you. It seems like every institution of American society and every voice of the political establishment is "honoring" the Great Emancipator on his 200th birthday.

But this is only a concentrated whiff of the legends about Lincoln that every one of us heard from our first days in school--a selfless leader, honest to a fault, the president who saved the union, the man who freed the slaves.

This sanctification--and, oftentimes, sanitizing--of past figures is typical. One result is that the ways history is shaped not mostly by individuals, but by the actions of much larger numbers of people, is obscured. Lincoln, for example, couldn't have freed a single slave without the 2.5 million soldiers who served in the Union Army--or without the self-activity of the slaves themselves, struggling for their freedom.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/02/12/lincoln-and-the-struggle-to-abolish-slavery

In honor of the bicentenary of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin
It is among the most remarkable coincidences of history that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same date, February 12, 1809. Lincoln, as the 16th president of the United States, made an immense contribution to the political liberation of mankind. Darwin, in the sphere of science, contributed mightily to its intellectual liberation. Today the World Socialist Web Site pays tribute to the memory of these two very great men.
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FULL ARTICLE

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/pers-f12.shtml

[Kajsa]

1. Happy Birthday to two great men,

who changed our world.

:toast: