It’s February Again

Here it is February. Already. Spring is just a few weeks away and if the doctors hadn’t had me shut in so tight I would already be up and down the streets looking for the first signs of it. Or to put it another way, I get tired of winter pretty quick. Usually wintertime gives us a pretty snow or two covering up winter’s liter and trash in the ditches and hiding winter’s dead grass with a clean white cover. So far, no luck this year, nor last year. February is also the birthday month for two of our most well known presidents; Washington and Lincoln.

Last week I speculated on what old “honest” Abe Lincoln would say, do or think about Donald Trump. One thing I think he would do is laugh. Lincoln had a great sense of humor and I think the first thing he would note is this: “The press may be as hard on him as they were on me.” That would be going some but on the other hand Trump’s term isn’t finished just yet. Or, give ‘em time.

President Jimmy Carter referenced this the other day saying one has to look all the way back to Lincoln’s term to fi nd a period of hostility toward a president as mean spirited and degrading as was shown to President Lincoln. He was repeatedly called “The Baboon” and “Ape” and compared to all kinds of animals. Political cartoons didn’t give him any relief either. They were worse. And his wife was under attack too.

Lincoln’s wife was often charged with being a “foreign” spy. In fact, Congress, seeking to indict her and put her in prison was stopped when the old tall president Abe himself walked into the hearing room and made himself available to answer any of their questions. They faded away in the face of reality. Mrs. Lincoln was indeed a “foreigner” but that was during the civil war and after all, she had kin living in Kentucky. I’m sure Lincoln would have had a smile while considering President Trump’s marriage to Melina Trump. And should I mention that the press accused Lincoln, the uncouth rail splitter, of letting his son keep a pair of pet goats in the White House. Oh wait. He did.

If President Lincoln could be revived long enough to walk down a crowded street these days I wonder who would even know who he was, or resembled? Comedian Jay Leno liked to corner college students and show them pictures of famous people and places and see if they recognized them. Pictures such as Washington or Lincoln, the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore among those shown. Need I say, they didn’t. Yes, Mr. Lincoln may or might not have liked President Trump but he would have surely sympathized with the man and his handling of today’s liberal press. Like I said, February is a busy birthday month. Besides Lincoln and Washington being honored there are several people celebrating this month. Even me.

All of this now causes my mind to turn to my flag on my front lawn. I have suffered a major flag malfunction during the recent wind storms we have had and I took it down for a bit. Add to that the fact that I’m forbidden from doing anything until I get my heart procedure completed this week the pole looks and will continue to look very bare. If I don’t get it back up soon, you can be sure I’m thinking about it and hope to have “Old Glory” back in its place soon. And no. I don’t have any goats. Yet. Maybe you can check out Dennis Sappenfield ‘s extensive farm and ranch holdings.

I hope all of you have a good weekend and I’m pretty sure it would be a better one if you include attending your church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

waynebullard@ sbcglobal.net