A living tribute to Abraham Lincoln

One of the beautiful ways Abraham Lincoln has been memorialized in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois is through the Lincoln Memorial Garden. In 1936, this tract of land was empty pasture next to Lake Springfield. Legendary Danish-American landscape architect Jens Jensen was chosen to create this incredible tribute in native plants from the states Lincoln inhabited.

What else would surround the entire garden
but a split rail fence-
honoring Lincoln's legend as a logsplitter

Garden Clubs across America
sponsored dozens of park benches
featuring Lincoln's wisdom

I spent an entire morning exploring the six miles
of woodland and prairie Jensen created -
it seemed like five minutes

Jens Jensen loved to create woodland council rings
in all of his work
Can't you imagine sprites and pixies
entering the rings from all sides of the forest?
The circles are often used for
weddings, storytelling, nature programs, even turtle races!

Beautiful Midwestern tall-grass prairie
in the morning sun

The garden was in the middle of a costume change

from summer to fall when I visited

Mushrooms and tree seed pods were every where.
Other amazing times to visit:
in the spring when the dogwoods and crabapples
are blooming, when the fall leaves are out,
when the maple trees are tapped for syrup.

The Springfield Race Riots of 1908

When I first drove into Springfield, I was shocked to see all kinds of signs about the Springfield Race Riots of 1908. What the heck was that about? There is a walking tour of spots detailing what happened over two awful days but there also happened to be an outstanding temporary exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library about the whole traumatic episode.

These episodes always seem to have the same theme
Two weeks later she admitted she made it all up

During two hot and humid days in August of 1908, some of the white population of Springfield went on a rampage and terrorized the African-American population. It all started when a white woman accused an African-American man of raping her. Two black men were held in the county jail for crimes against whites including this one. A large white crowd assembled outside the jail, wanting to take matters into their own hands, chanting for vigilante justice.

The police got the two men out of there immediately. When the angry mob figured out they had been tricked, and the prisoners had been spirited out, they went on an ugly, destructive rampage that lasted over a couple days. It didn't end until the Governor called in the National Guard.

The nation was shocked something like this could happen
in Lincoln's Springfield

The skill with which this exhibit was put together is astounding. It starts off with a proclamation from the current mayor that includes an acknowledgment of the events that took place 100 years ago and an apology. Each panel then explains exactly what the white mob did. Teachers are warned about exercising caution before exposing children to the exhibit.

Despite the incredibly sensational nature of what is shared, I did not find the exhibit induced "white guilt." I found it to instead produce "white growth." There's something about the quiet explanation of each cruel act that is like hearing someone's wrongs and really processing it and feeling it. I wasn't even there and it was 100 years ago, but I could feel some of my own denial cut through like a hot knife through butter by the presentation. I wish I could drag this fantastic explanation of history to some local malls. It needs to expand it's reach beyond those who would come into a library.

This form of hate may be under glass now
but there are always new forms of hate
for us to guard against

If this could happen in Lincoln's Springfield, activists at the time believed it could happen anywhere. The Springfield Race Riots of 1908 led to the formation of the National Association of Colored People, an organization that has been incredibly effective at curbing these abuses.

You might be interested in these posts:

Why the Obama Presidential Library needs to be in
Springfield, Illinois

A near spiritual experience at Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas

What Inspires Stories?

One of the objections I kept hearing about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (across the street from the Museum) is that there's nothing to see there. It's true that the library is a working research library and the staff are busy taking care of historians and researchers working on their projects. Personally, I wanted to browse the stacks but they're closed to the general public!

If Lincoln has garnered more books about him than anyone else in the world, save Jesus Christ, I imagine a terrific way volunteers or staff there could infect people with a passion for primary documents ("why do we save this old stuff anyway?") is to give a walking tour of some of the neat stuff in the collection.

For example, one book about Lincoln that is beloved by Lincoln lovers is "Team of Rivals" by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. What are the interesting primary documents she used to assemble her story? What a terrific way to share with people, especially young adults, how a well-researched book is put together. Such a tour could inspire a few books from the next generation.

Entering the Land of Lincoln

I realized when I made the decision to move to Prague that there was a whole lot of stuff in Illinois and the Midwest in general that I didn't get around to seeing. I didn't know if I would ever live in Illinois again, and there was one thing I absolutely had to see before I left because it went to the core of what the people of Illinois are proud of and hold dear.

I needed to go to Springfield, Illinois and see the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The minute I drove into downtown Springfield, I could understand why my United States Senator, Barack Obama, chose this place to announce his candidacy for presidency of the United States and later, his choice of running mate. I got an instant lump in my throat just arriving -- such is the immediate visibility of American history here.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President
of the United States of America

The museum was designed with the help of people from Disney, so it's the first "experiential" Presidential museum. People come here from all over the world, which surprised me, because Lincoln was president of the United States in the 1860s. I'm always amazed when people from other countries know our history so well.

The staff have the hardest time
keeping kids from pulling all the hair and eyelashes
out of the Lincoln family.
They look so real and the kids want to touch them.

One of the terrific
Presidential Museum volunteers -
there are many

When the museum was built,
the workmen kept trying to get all of the pieces
of the flooring to meet beautifully in the middle
but the tips kept breaking.
So a workman said, "I'll fix that,"
and he put a Lincoln penny into the floor so the tips didn't show.
It's still there! Some of the gentlemen volunteers keep a ready supply
of new shiny pennies to put on that spot
so kids can find it and have a neat souvenir:
a lucky Lincoln penny from the Lincoln Museum.

Museum visitors start their journey
by experiencing life in Lincoln's log cabin
and later go on to experience life in the White House.

During the four days I was visiting Springfield, the whole Bailout story started in the news. Somehow it made me appreciate the sacrifice of this Civil War Generation and what they went through to keep the union intact even more. The sacrifice and stress on the Lincolns themselves was incredible, with three dead children and of course, Lincoln's own death.

One of the most telling displays was the whispering gallery. As you walked through, you could hear all of the awful things people would say about the Lincolns while they were in office whispered out loud.

Another display that I appreciated was a presentation answering the question "what do we save this old stuff for anyway?" Explaining this to children has never been more important since children often no longer have a real librarian teaching them about libraries anymore in their schools. The presentation was so well done, many of us could not tell if the historian in the presentation was a hologram or an actor.

Listening to tweens come out of another "experiential" presentation, I heard them exclaim "that was so fly! That was awesome! Can we go in again?"

There is no way I can convey what the Museum so expertly conveyed which is how damn lucky the American people were to have this leadership at a time of enormous uncertainty when things could have gone so many different ways. As the historian in the first presentation said, the reason we save these old things is "so that the best in us-- live on in you."

A Czech Life Well Lived

I came across this New York Times story about a Czech glass designer who revived the Waterford brand in Ireland and wanted to share it in case anyone missed it. His work is appreciated worldwide. Click on the title to read the article.

Wacky Missouri History

While leaving central Missouri, I passed a community called Kingdom City. If I hadn't been told by Walt, my couchsurfing host, what the name referred to, I would have assumed the community got that name through a religious reference.

Turns out that during the American civil war, Calloway County, Missouri decided to succeed from the union and become it's own kingdom. Now that's wacky.

So can you guess where I'm going next? Here's two hints:

1) I'm not driving in a straight line to Colorado.

2) I'm going to learn about the human being, who second only to Jesus Christ, has more books written about him than anyone else in the history of world.

"An Iron Curtain has descended"

Driving through Missouri is a pleasure because the glaciers did not make it down this far from the North to flatten the earth. All the county roads are hilly and curvy. Walt, my Couchsurfing host, told me about a terrific one, Road WW, that I should use to arrive at my next destination. I felt like I was in a car commercial, such was the pleasure of the drive!

Just 30 miles from Columbia, Missouri, where daughter #2 goes to university, is the charming small town of Fulton, Missouri. It looks like the kind of community that would be terrific for raising children. It's small enough to be safe for riding bikes all over town but with intellectual stimulation for the community from the local college.

The Winston Churchill Memorial

It was here that the local institution of higher learning, Westminster College, took advantage of having a Missouri native son in the White House, to see if they could finagle Winston Churchill as a speaker for their annual address on international relations. President Harry Truman wrote a handwritten note on the bottom of the invitation telling Mr. Churchill that he would introduce him. Winston promptly accepted.

In 1946, in this small town in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill named and described what was happening to Eastern and Central Europe after WWII. It was forever to be known as the "Iron Curtain" speech.

This is the actual hard copy of Winston Churchill's speech describing "the iron curtain" that had descended over the ancient capitals of Central and Eastern Europe. It's impossible for me to look at the page without reading it mentally in my best Winston Churchill imitation. How about you?

Winston Churchill's life experience is shared through the exhibits. A recurring theme is the ability to foresee what would happen before others could.

The exhibit makes the point again and again that no Czech was present
when the Munich agreement was negotiated
between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler.

Which immediately begs the question: what if one had been?
Would the outcome have been different?
Or would that poor Czech and his descendants have had to live with that?
What do you think?

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway --
this was not the West's finest hour.

What is that quotation?
"Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it."
The museum described that when Churchill assumed leadership of his country,
it was exhausted by war and broke.
He had to decide if he could afford troops on the ground in Iraq
or mere influence. He accepted reality and chose influence.

To commemorate this important speech, Westminster College administration and trustees, pursued importing and reassembling an English church designed by the great Christopher Wren to memorialize the wisdom of Winston Churchill. There were so many churches damaged in the Blitz that the English could not restore them all and were happy to let this one go.

The stones, while marked, became all jumbled when they were used as ballast in the ship's hold coming over (using them as ballast lowered the shipping cost). Then they were jumbled a second time when they were transported across country. Walt's uncle was the lead stone mason on the project. He had the job of puzzling which stone went where.

Winston Churchill's granddaughter created an additional commemoration entitled "Breakthrough" utilizing a segment of the Berlin Wall.

The West German side

The East German side lacking any individual expression

Winston Churchill is my hero so I can't recommend this visit enough. I'm excited to know that I haven't read everything he has published. His writing gives me strength and inspires me.

Great leaders who have followed Winston Churchill to this site include Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, British Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, and Sir John Major, Polish President Lech Walesa, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Touring this site takes about three hours. Admission is $6. I would like to recommend a lively restaurant downtown with great value. A local told me about it. It's called Bek's.