FEBRUARY MUSINGS....
It has been too long since I've written a new post. I've been busy reading online, joining newsletters and other sites, joining Zoom calls, signing up for local actions, writing to my representatives, and working on being as much of an activist as possible. I feel like I owe it to the memory of Frances Perkins.
She would be, as my mother used to say, rolling over in her grave.
I love the echoes of her philosophy of government that are so clear in Lincoln's. He was one of our most dedicated, courageous and patriotic presidents ever, rivaled only by George Washington, in my view.
I've been thinking of him a lot later, wondering what he'd have to say about our democracy slipping away day by day.
I thought of him last week when I couldn't sleep and wrote this poem:
At Two AM
Belov'd Ship of State,
You are taking on water!
The Cancer within fires each shell, every mortar
You shudder and founder
Each hit is a bad one
O Captain, My Captain!
If only we had one
We do have representatives in Congress with principle and backbone, though sadly too few.
One is my senator, Angus King of Maine, of whom I'm very proud.
While talking with him at the Frances Perkins Labor Department building on December 16, the day the proclamation creating the Frances Perkins Homestead National Monument was signed, I told him I was Perkins' latest biographer and when he asked how to get a copy I said I'd mail him one, and did, just as I did for another Maine hero of mine, who I also talked with that day, Heather Cox Richardson.
Angus stood in the senate this month and delivered an amazing call to decency and truth. He is a true patriot and made a persuasive argument to his Republican colleagues as to why they must put party politics aside to defend Democracy and the Constitution. Did it change their hearts and minds? Sadly, no.
My little poem was also a nod to another Mainer: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose poems I've loved since childhood. The line "O Captain, My Captain" is of course from his famous poem about Lincoln, following his assassination. There's the tie in.
But I didn't know Longfellow's poem, "O Ship Of State." Look it up. I'd love to know if it made anyone else weep.
Back to Abe, here's part of a speech he made to Union soldiers. I find it achingly timely. I think we know what Lincoln would have had to say about the Trump-Musk takeover.
"It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.. . It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright—not only for one, but for two or three years. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel."
--Abraham Lincoln
Oh Mr. Lincoln. May we all take your words of wisdom to heart in fighting to preserve our precious democracy!
That's my hand cut silhouette of Lincoln at the top. Two were commissioned some years back as gifts to Maine elected officials at an annual Republican Lincoln's Day dinner. Ironic, huh?
Ruth Monsell
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