"Lincoln" is a great film that shows the turmoil in the congress during the Civil War. Then as now, individual legislators promoted their parties and business interests while Lincoln acted to win the war and develop a plan for reconstruction. The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was at issue. It passed but civil rights for all are still contentious. If he had lived, we might have avoided a century of racial turmoil.

Now we are engaged in a worldwide struggle for human equality. The North African revolutions and the demise of the Soviet Union have not brought peace and prosperity to those regions. Iraq and Afghanistan seem worse off for our interventions. We are still in a state of war with Korea! Palestine and Israel remain locked in mortal combat. Our country seems to promote military solutions to political questions.

Part of the problem may be that we are obsessed with being the most powerful country in the world like Napoleon's France, Nelson's Britain or, briefly, Hitler's Germany. Lincoln was a powerful man and his policies won over the Confederacy but he was aware that military might was just a tool. The strategic goal was human equality.

Dick Smith

Bellingham