The Lincoln Memorial is a perennial must-visit destination for school field trips, disparate marches, and movements of all persuasion. Unfortunately, it is a super-sized serving of baseless beliefs and wholesale lies.
Consider that throughout the presidential campaign of 1860, then-candidate Lincoln had all but promised not to interfere with Southern slavery, which he reiterated in his first presidential inaugural address:
Jonathan Clark
ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) are witnesses — and PTSD survivors — of an extraordinarily 401 years of a unique experience in this country. ADOS blacks were truncated from Africa, an incomparably rich and diverse interlacing tapestry of cultures denied to every cargo load that docked here, beginning in 1619. The only surviving documents for those stolen families are shipping manifests, and few of those have survived to the present. Breaking their spirits began a centuries-long history of vile degradation at the hands of the whites who benefitted from systemic white supremacy from the day they were born — an unearned birthright for whites, an exceptional denial by a country that deems itself exceptional among all other countries on the planet. How do you make reparation for a people who rapidly made it possible for the US to move from an agrarian to an industrial economic power
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
Jonathan Clark, quoting Abraham Lincoln
Former slave owners found themselves in a temporary economic bind when their principal source of wealth generation disappeared, so the reunited States government provided reparations to see them through. To the victor go the reparations. The former slaves and their descendants were the principal losers of institutions that had already been brutally exploiting blacks since 1619 and continue to be ruthlessly brutalized to this very day. The white participants still had plenty of opportunities to continue the exploitation of ADOS, making easy targets in the 13th Amendment
Even though Lincoln was elected president, he had done so with almost no support from the South and less than 40% of the popular vote. And in a move that many refer to as “political genius,” Lincoln appointed his political rivals to cabinet positions, ostensibly to destroy enemies by making them friends — a move that would lead to disloyalty and backroom drama.
Jonathan Clark, quoting Abraham Lincoln
The white participants found new opportunities to continue the exploitation of ADOS. The 13th Amendment does not hide the catch clause in the small print, it places that gotcha right in the middle, in an exception clause, the devil slithers in the details.
ADOS blacks have always been denied ties to an incomparably rich and diverse continent of interlacing cultures denied to every cargo load that docked here from 1619 forward.
How do you make reparation to a people who singlehandedly made it possible for the US to move from an agrarian to an industrial economic power? This is a superpower that offers little to ADOS. Well, there is this way:
“Mistakes were made. This is ancient history, so get with the program.”
Mistakes — a genteel way to apply centuries of whitewash, to breed generations of apologists who pledge to the spirit of American Exceptionalism: one soundbite at a time, faithfully parroted from each generation to the next.
Wealthy whites (there are essentially no wealthy blacks) believe their destiny rests on manifest destiny ship manifests for stolen Africans) from the first mistold Thanksgiving to the NFL of the USA football games in November that marks a moment when colonialists and savages broke bread. Is taking a knee a traitorous? Are BLM protestors exceptionally criminal sorts who threaten godfearing lovers of Law and Order who consistently vote for judges who are “tough on crime.”
This country progressed from an agrarian to an industrial economy: one drop of a slave’s blood at a time.
Thanks for reading.
billziegler1947 