by Jim Wald | Feb 6, 2009 | The Public Humanist
Commentators, friend and foe, have made much of Barack Obama’s calculated appropriation of the legacy of Lincoln. What most struck me, as a book historian, was his decision to take the inaugural oath on the bible that Lincoln used in 1861.In the Senate Chamber,...
by Joanne Riley | Feb 10, 2009 | The Public Humanist
Dependent Child: “Hey Mum, can I go jump off that cliff?”Custodial Parent: “Yes, you can. But you may not.”DC:Aw, that’s not fair. Why not?CP: Because I said so. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as being informed by an entity...
by Robert Freedman | Feb 18, 2009 | The Public Humanist
I’m standing on a train platform in Springfield waiting for Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas to appear. Springfield, Massachusetts not Illinois, and the men whose arrival I await are actors. I think, “Is this going to work? Will I believe that these two...
by Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello | Feb 20, 2009 | The Public Humanist
As the United States faces severe economic difficulties many Americans–myself included–are debating which public and private actions might best ward off even worse disaster. Yet at the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish I want to suggest that a...
by Kristin Bumiller | Feb 24, 2009 | The Public Humanist
The current economic downturn has forced a generation of Americans, many for the first time, to make hard choices and revise their expectations about the taken-for-granted prosperity of this nation. This recession has already caused many people, and we anticipate the...
