marie returns from nashville

I was in Nashville again these last two days (Mon and Tue), and spoke about Lincoln and the south again.  A fair amount. 

I’m just not sure what to think about this “South” thing.  Having been corrected much of my life by people saying that there really is no north-south thing anymore, people in the south are just normal people, I am trying to incorporate this dislike of Lincoln by southerners into my mindset.

I mean, really - how can people not like Lincoln?  It’s like … not liking ice cream, or not liking books.   I chatted with some of the folks who had recommended some civil war battle sites the last time I was in Nashville, so I told them what I had visited (The Hermitage, Battle of Franklin, and nearby Carnton).   At one point during lunch I was sitting next to a guy who had studied civil war history for PhD work, so I brought up the fact that I was reading a book about Lincoln.  I said I admired Lincoln, and then said “But when I visited the Battle of Franklin site …” he smiled, he knew exactly what was coming:  ” … I don’t think people around here like Lincoln as much as I do.”  He said, “Well, you’re in the South now.”  He’s really nice, and very smart, and was not belitting me for my admiration of Lincoln at all - I think he even admired Lincoln.  He was just stating it like it is.   And that’s how it is, I guess.  I was in the South.

And I was on the plane coming home, reading my book about Lincoln that has the subtitle “the political genius of Abraham Lincoln”.  The guy sitting next to me on the plane read it [we had a little rapport going] and said “the political genius of Abraham Lincoln??” clearly indicating that he thought the statement “political genius” was taking it a bit too far. I quickly summarized my stories about Lincoln, and he replied that he guessed Lincoln kept the country together in the end, otherwise we would have to use passports to go from Nashville to Chicago.

Well, I guess that’s one thing Lincoln did, he made my business trips to the south easier.

Posted by Marie on January 16th, 2007 under US History

Leave a Comment

rss feed
About Marie


Archives:


January 2007
M T W T F S S
« Dec   Feb »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Links