Misquoting Lincoln to support Bush

August 26, 2006

Carpus at Aspirations of a Post Doc fisks a quote making the rounds that has Abraham Lincoln claiming dissent is close to treason.  Go read his post.  Turns out the quote was manufactured, partly in error, in 2003.  Carpus points to the FactCheck.org report for a source. 

Lincoln never said it.  Lincoln did little to stifle dissent.

In fact, Lincoln’s management style as president was based on bringing people with dissenting views into his cabinet.  Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest book, Team of Rivals, strongly suggests that forging good policies from great dissent was a particular genius of Lincoln.

George W. could learn a lot from Abe, Carpus concludes — with astounding understatement.

2 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Current History, History Revisionism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Colorado flag flap update

August 26, 2006

Update, August 28:  Interesting discussion at The Education Wonks.

The 7th grade world geography teacher in Lakewood, Colorado, Eric Hamlin, reached a compromise agreement with the school district over the display of foreign flags in his classroom, according to a couple of reports I heard last night after I posted on the controversy.  The World, a co-production of BBC, Public Radio International and WGBH in Boston, carried a thorough report, in audio.

But then he decided to resign from the school anyway, according to Matthew Rothschild at the online Progressive.  Denver Post columnist Jim Spencer added a few details, including the very temporary way the flags were mounted (the Colorado law bans “permanent” displays).  Lots of comments, including the text of the law, at Reason.com’s Hit and Run. (I have the complete text of the law below the fold.)

It would be difficult to write parody like this. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Current History, First Amendment, Flag etiquette, Freedom - Political, Geography - Political, History, Pedagogy, Public education, School discipline | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell