2 Thumbs Up for Lincoln

Time off during Thanksgiving week provided a great opportunity to go see Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Lincoln. I had heard Spielberg had used Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals, to base the portrayal of Lincoln. Having read that book a few summers ago, I was intrigued how Spielberg would tie the movie into the book.

In her outstanding book, Doris portrays how Lincoln utilized in his cabinet candidates who had not only vehemently opposed him, but still questioned his ability as president. The movie picks up some of this in the cabinet scenes, but having read the book I felt I was a bit more sensitive to that portrayal.

The movie also focuses on the passage of the 13th amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery, and how Lincoln is driven to accomplish its passing. Like the book, the movie embraces Lincoln’s leadership style that focuses on the principle to be accomplished, in this case the passing of the 13th amendment by the House of Representatives, but also his commitment to preserve the Union. From this leadership style Lincoln shows great care for those who disregard him. His humility, his willingness to let others express their opinion while still holding to his own convictions, and his desire not for credit, but accomplishment, make this a great study in leadership.

I also greatly appreciated how the movie worked in the Gettysburg address and Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address, Lincoln’s Greatest Speech (and also a great book).   Part of the power of the movie for me was the feeling Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis who plays Lincoln, picked up Lincoln’s communication style with folksy stories to make his points and his ability to draw attention not to himself, but to the principle he was lifting up.

In addition to Daniel Day-Lewis, the ensemble cast does a tremendous job. The focus is on Lincoln, but every one is needed, not only in the movie, but in the leadership style Lincoln pursues. He realized he could not do this alone. He leveraged and at times leaned hard to get the best out of people whether family, soldiers, politicians, or influencers.

Though there are no great chase scenes and you kind of know how the story will end, this is a great movie to see to remember American history, and to learn from it. I give it 2 thumbs up, 4 out of 4 stars. And if I had my way, the politicians in Washington should rent out a movie theater, get their favorite soda, a large bucket of popcorn, and sit and watch this movie together. Then come out and make this commitment, “Though we are rivals, America is our team, and we will work hard together to bring out the best.” That’s true not only for fiscal cliffs, dealing with a long-lasting conflict, times of war, but leveraging the best of what it means to be America. Seems like we have forgotten that message in our day, perhaps seeing Lincoln will bring that power back not only in D.C., but in each of us as Americans.

Neil Armstrong: One Small Step … One Giant Leap … One Humble Leader

The summer of ’69, I was 10 years old and an avid space fan. Growing up in central Florida, we would watch the countdown for the Apollo launches and when they hit zero, run outside and see those Saturn V Rockets light up the sky.

Christmas in ’68 had been extra special as Apollo 8 circled the moon and read from Genesis. It was to be trumped by July ’69 and those infamous words, “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

For 36 hours men would be on the moon, with my sleeping bag firmly planted in front of the TV set I vowed to watch non-stop. And I did until I feel asleep later that night, but only after Neil Armstrong had stepped down from the Lunar Module and spoke those immortal words, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”

This past weekend Neil Armstrong passed away at 82 years of age. I didn’t realize it that night, but do now. Armstrong was not only a hero, but a humble leader.

Wright Brothers. Lindbergh. Armstrong topped them all in my book, by being the first human to walk on the moon. He could have leveraged that experience in commercials, speeches, and simply making appearances. But he didn’t.

Over the years he shied away from interviews and the limelight. He continued to serve testing equipment. He taught. And according to the release by his family was still husband, father, grandfather.

He self described himself as a “nerdy engineer” before the Big Bang Theory made nerdy engineers cool. He was a test pilot who landed the Lunar Module with 20 seconds of fuel left and a boulder needing to be cleared for the proper landing. He did it as a man who accomplished the greatest feat of his generation and of my generation, but with great humility.

As a 10 year old Armstrong was my hero because he walked on the moon. The life he has lived since then reminds me he did so as a humble leader. One axiom says what matters is what you do after you hit success. Armstrong did it well.

Godspeed Neil Armstrong, thank you for representing us well on the moon and on this earth.

Soul Food for Friday: Continuing the Celebration of America’s Freedom

4th of July has come and gone, but we continue to celebrate our nation’s freedom with this week’s Soul Food for Friday and some great quotes about America.

“The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities — a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“What’s right with America is a willingness to discuss what’s wrong with America.” – Harry C. Bauer

“The real beauty of democracy is that the average man believes he is above average.” – Morrie Brickman

“America must always try to improve the world. She fights, if fight she must, for liberty and a more just society, for peace. ‘Making the world safe for democracy’ was not merely a catch phrase, an empty slogan; it’s the very soul of America, the force of America.” – Luigia Barzini

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” – Abraham Lincoln

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” – George Washington

“America is another name for opportunity.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Americans are optimists. The hope they’ll be wealthy someday — and they’re positive they can get one more brushful of paint out of an empty can.” – Ben Williams

“It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.” – Dick Cheney

“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.” – Woodrow Wilson

“Being an American is not a matter of birth. We must practice it every day, lest we become something else.” – Malcolm Wallop

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” – Declaration of Independence

“A free people remain free only so long as the citizens exercise responsibilities one to another and to their government.” – Robert W. Miller

“Anything that keeps a politician humble is healthy for democracy.” — Michael Kinsley

“The happiness of society is the end of government.” – John Adams

“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.” – George W. Bush

“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, bu the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” – Adlai Stevenson

“What I learned on the road. Above all else — to love my native land.” – Charles Kuralt

“I realized early on that the strength of this nation came from the hearts and heads and outstretched hands of the people.” – Rod McKuen

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” — The Constitution of the United States of America

“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.” – Jimmy Carter

“Our government is a gift from God, who calls us to be good stewards of it.” – John M. Shimkus

“When we as a nation, strive in vain to preserve the beauty of our national life, forgetting our biblical roots, we are doomed.” – Richard Halverson

“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.” — Ronald Reagan

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have stated the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments.” – James Madison

And my favorite quote for America …

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” – John F. Kennedy

What inspires you to continue the celebration of America this day?

America: Words to Celebrate Our Nation’s Founding and Future

Ask me the word I use to summarize what it means to be an American, and that word is: Freedom. Give me two words and it’s “Freedom for”. Often lost in confusion because too often it is defined as ‘freedom from.” Enjoy the following quotes about America: our past, our present and our future life of freedom.

“Let independence be our boast, ever mindful what it cost; ever grateful for the prize.” — Joseph Hopkinson

“The Declaration of Independence states the the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.” – Vaclav Havel

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” – George Washington

“We pick politicians by how they look on TV and Miss America on where she stands on the issues. Isn’t that a little backwards?” – Jay Leno

“Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” – Pope John Paul II

“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“Democracy’s real test lies in its respect for minority opinion.” – Ellery Sedgwick

“America is not just a country. It’s an idea.” – Bono

“Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” – Abraham Lincoln

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining the perfect, delicate balance between freedom ‘to’ and freedom ‘from’.” – Marily vos Savant

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” – Elmer Davis

“Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another checkout line.” – Ann Landers

“Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Whoever wants to understand the heart and mind of America better learn baseball.” – Jacques Barzan

“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry

“America is so vast that almost everything said about it likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true.” – James T. Farrell

“In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” – Mark Twain

“Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.” – George Washington

“The United States has not the option as to whether it will or it will not play a great part in the world. It must play a great part. All that it can decide is whether it will play that part well or badly.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” – Thomas Jefferson

“There are some who’ve forgotten why we have a military. It’s not to promote war. It’s to be prepared for peace. There’s a sign over the entrance to the Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington state, and that sign says it all: ‘Peace is our profession’.” – Ronald Reagan

“This nation was created by a breed of people who practiced what I call the five G’s — grit, gumption, guts, grace and God. It can be maintained only by the same kind of people.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“We have to start thinking of America as a family. We have to stop screeching screeching at each other, stop hurting each other, and instead start caring for, sacrificing for and sharing with each other … We cannot move forward if cynics and critics swoop down and pick apart anything that goes wrong, to a point where we lose sight of what is right, decent and uniquely good about America.” – Colin Powell

“Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans. United not by race or religion or by blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us.” — Rick Warren

What are your favorite quotes that describe America for you?

Most of all, God bless America. And by God’s grace, may we as Americans bless God with the freedom He gives!

Remembering on Memorial Day

Remember the sacrifice. Remember the gift. Remember more then summer is beginning. Temptation for most people on Memorial Day is to take a day off and count down to the end of school or the beginning of summer. Yet going to Washington, D.C. last fall, leads me to remember. Arlington Cemmetery. Vietnam War Memorial. World War II. Korean War. Lives sacrificed and given for the freedom we enjoy. There are no shortage of memorials in Washington, D.C. There is no shortage of sacrifice for the cause of freedom. This day take a moment to remember and give thanks. (Special thank you to my wife, Sharon, for capturing these special places with her pictures.)

Soldiers known only to God for the sacrifice they provided. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers Arlington Cemmetery

Soldiers on patrol at the Korean War Memorial.

World War II Memorial.

World War II Memorial

Remembering the names of  soldiers who gave their  lives  in Vietnam at the Vietnam War Memorial.

Vietnam War Memorial with Washington Monument in the Background

Arlington National Cemetery, a place to remember and give thanks.

Arlington National Cemetery

This Memorial Day, take time to give thanks for those who gave their lives that we might be free. Remember their families, their sacrifice and the freedom we all enjoy.

The Dream is Still Alive

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr day is a reminder of one of the great speeches of history, “I have a dream.”

Today is a reminder for me the dream is still alive. Of all the words in Dr. King’s speech, the one’s that speak the most to me are: ” I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts. “The Dream” inspired a movement, and changed a nation. The “all men created equal” came to be true, not only for all men, but for all people.

In the new memorial to Dr. King in Washington, D.C., I love how the sculptor has a large boulder split in two, with the middle piece pulled forward and Dr. King sculpted in that piece of the rock. Then of all the quotes at the Dr. King memorial is my favourite quote is not from Dr. King but about him, “Out of a mountain of despair, came a stone of hope.”

God has a dream as well from Ephesians 2 that Jew and Gentile (everybody not Jewish) become one in Christ. That dream inspired the King dream, and is there  to inspire our dream for people today. The dream is still alive, it finds its life in our Creator and Redeemer, and is empowered by the Spirit at work in us. Keep the dream alive.

What are your favourite words from Dr. King’s speeches that inspire you to follow the deam?

Want to see more pictures of the King memorial, check out my wife’s blog on the memorial (Click here) (Check out her other posts for some great recipes)

Soul Food for Friday: The Greatest Speech

So what would you say is the greatest speech you heard (or as you will see in a moment) read? Reagan? MLK? JFK? Churchill? Jesus, of course (question should say besides Jesus). When it comes to presidential speeches, Lincoln had great power. Being in D.C. last month, I was reminded again of the power of words and the vision they paint.

2 years ago I read, Lincoln’s Greatest Speech, by Ronald C. White. I would have guessed the Gettysburg Address, but not after reading White’s book. You can read my review: http://richardburkey.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/lincolns-greatest-speech/

My trip to DC led of course to the Lincoln Memorial. There are the words of the Gettysburg Address on one side and his 2nd inaugural address on the other. Powerful to read them engraved in the memorial. If you can only see one thing in DC, this is the place to go. So much history in LIncoln himself and his sacrifice for America, so much of what is good and what can be good in politics, as well as historical marches for Civil Rights to remembering United We Stand.

Lincoln Memorial by Sharon Burkey

This week’s soul food for Friday is Linclon’s speech. The transcript comes thanks to The American Presidency Project where you can read and in some cases see and hear your favorite president speak.

On March, 1865, Abraham Lincoln says to a waiting nation, coming out of a national battle where he proved victorious these inspiring words:

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether tosavingthe Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking todestroyit without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them wouldmakewar rather than let the nation survive, and the other wouldacceptwar rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that thecauseof the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

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Citation: Abraham Lincoln:”Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1865.Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25819.

Read more at the American Presidency Project:Abraham Lincoln: Inaugural Addresshttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25819#ixzz1auuOeUtv

What sticks out in Lincoln’s speech to motivate you today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soul Food for Friday: The JFK Question to Ask

One Christmas I got a reel to reel tape player for Christmas. Yes, I am from the stone age. One of the tapes that came with it was John Kennedy’s inauguration address. I listened to that speech hundreds of times. I even have it on my Ipod. Kennedy could turn a phrase.

Visiting the eternal flame that marks his grave at Arlington Cemetery, I was reminded again of one of my favorite quotes from his inauguration and this week’s Soul Food for Friday: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

JFK Gravestone at Arlington Cemetery by Sharon Burkey

That applies to churches, to marriages, to the leadership you bring to each situation. The question is not what I get, but what I give. And that question makes all the difference.

In case you want to watch/listen to more of John Kennedy’s speeches, check out http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/medialist.php?presid=35.

So where do you need to ask yourself what you can do to make a difference?

Soul Food for Friday: Hope & the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

This week’s Soul Food for Friday comes from my recent visit to Washington, D.C., a great source of memorials and quotes. One evening we were able to go to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, a man who did much for making us aware of the reality of racism and opened our eyes to the prejudice prevalent in our own country. He also was a gifted communicator.

In addition to the memorial itself, there is Inscription Wall that has 14 quotes from Dr. King. I was moved as I read them, and by one of the quotes on the King statue itself.

MLK Statue from Wikipedia

Looking at the statue and then moving left is this inscription and this week’s Soul Food for Friday: “Out of a mountain of despair came a stone of hope.” 

The King statue is 18 feet , and the two pieces of the mountain reveal the statue has been pulled out from this despair and declared hope for the “dream”.

From Wikipedia I found a list of all 14 quotes on the Inscription Wall that lines the path to and away from the statue. They are:

The fourteen quotes on the Inscription Wall are:

• “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” (16 August 1967, Atlanta, GA)
• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” (1963, Strength to Love)
• “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” (10 December 1964, Oslo, Norway)
• “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” (18 April 1959, Washington, DC)
• “I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world.” (25 February 1967, Los Angeles, CA)
• “If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” (24 December 1967, Atlanta, GA)
• “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (16 April 1963, Birmingham, AL)
• “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” (10 December 1964, Oslo, Norway)
• “It is not enough to say “We must not wage war.” It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.” (24 December 1967, Atlanta, GA)
• “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” (25 February 1967, Los Angeles, CA)
• “Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.” (4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York, NY)
• “We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs “down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (5 December 1955, Montgomery, AL)
• “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.” (16 April 1963, Birmingham, AL)
• “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” (16 April 1963, Birmingham, AL)
• What’s your favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. quote? Why does it speak so powerfully to you?

Book Review: The Words We Live By

You would expect that a pastor reviewing a book called, The Words We Live By, would be reviewing a book about the Bible. As great as a title that would be for a book about the Bible, this edition of The Words We Live By is by Linda Monk and as she says on the cover it’s “your annotated guide to the constitution.”

Yes, I read a book about the Constitution of the United States of America. Yes, I was on a trip to Washington, D.C. when I bought it. There was a bit of tourist motivation in buying. I had seen it in the store at the National Archives building of National Treasure fame. No, they didn’t let us look at the book of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution for a secret map. We did see the historic documents that have framed our country.

The Words We Live By by Linda R. Monk

It wasn’t until we went to the Library of Congress a couple days later, and there it was in the gift shop. What I like about this book is how it goes line by line through the constitution and its amendments to explain the background, the history, the reason it’s in there, how it has been used, and how it has been debated.

In a certain sense, Linda Monk gives both sides of the story. She ties together how our 3 branches of government (you can name them right?) work together: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial or President, Congress and the Supreme Court. I discovered how much of a living document our constitution is. I appreciated what our founders got right, and grieved how in the issue of slavery and a few others they got wrong. That has continued to be our pattern in history.

Linda Monk also adds quotes and anecdotes throughout the book, that adds a great flavor to the conversation. The Words We Live By provided a great reminder of how our government works at its best, and how we have sought to survive, grow and hopefully lead as a nation in our world.

If it’s been a while since you have looked into what it means to be an American, The Words We Live By would be a great reminder of the stuff you suffered through in your U.S. History class, and now find to be true as a proud American living out the freedoms we have been given.

What book has been a great reminder to you of what it means to be an American?