Is everybody ready for today’s history lesson?  This didn’t happen in Sacramento, but definitely affects us all. 

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, was born February 12, 1809, two hundred years ago.  It’s amazing that a man born so long ago had so much influence on the direction our country has taken.  Maybe it is no coincidence that Barak Obama, our 44th President and the first black American to serve as President, chose to use the same bible that was used by Lincoln, the president who fought to abolish slavery, to swear his oath to serve our country.  The theme of the 44th inauguration was “A New Birth of Freedom” commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

Lincoln successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery.  As the war was drawing to a close, he became the first American president to be assassinated.  Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate.

Let’s all hope that Barak Obama, a former Illinois Senator and a lawyer, can lead our country out of the current economic crisis the way Lincoln led the Union through the Civil War.  Unfortunately Lincoln’s assassination ended his quest to lead our country and maybe we have learned from that history changing event that the best way to express our opinion is with a vote the way so many did in November 2008, instead of a gun, if we disagree with the direction our government is going.

Abraham Lincoln Born 200 Years Ago

Since I posted the article earlier “A penny for your thoughts“, Yahoo News has featured an article about the new pennies as well.  Just click on this Yahoo News link to see their take on the whole new penny design.

These undated images provided by the Treasury Department show the reverse sides for the 2009 Bicentennial Lincoln penny. In 2009, the U.S. Mint will put into circulation a series of four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent. The obverse, heads side, will remain the same.(AP Photo/Treasury Department)