首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress wil
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress wil
admin
2012-05-08
60
问题
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress will hold a special joint session in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, a wreath will be laid at the great memorial in Washington, and a webcast will link school classrooms for a "teach-in" honouring his memory.
Admirable as they are, though, the events will strike many of us Lincoln fans as inadequate, even halfhearted — and another sign that our appreciation for the 16th president and his towering achievements is slipping away. And you don’t have to be a Lincoln enthusiast to believe that this is something we can’t afford to lose.
Compare this year’s celebration with the Lincoln centennial, in 1909. That year, Lincoln’s likeness made its debut on the penny, thanks to approval from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Communities and civic associations in every corner of the country erupted in parades, concerts, balls, lectures, and military displays. We still feel the effects today: The momentum unloosed in 1909 led to the Lincoln Memorial, opened in 1922, and Lincoln Highway, the first paved transcontinental thoroughfare.
The celebrants in 1909 had a few inspirations we lack today. Lincoln’s presidency was still a living memory for countless Americans. In 2009 we are farther in time from the end of the Second World War than they were from the Civil War, families still felt the loss of loved ones from that awful national trauma.
But Americans in 1909 had something more: an unembarrassed appreciation for heroes and an acute sense of the way that even long-dead historical figures press in on the present and make us who we arc.
One story will illustrate what I’m talking about.
In 2003 a group of local citizens arranged to place a statue of Lincoln in Richmond, Virginia, former capital of the Confederacy. The idea touched off a firestorm of controversy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans held a public conference of carefull selected scholars to "reassess" the legacy of Lincoln. The verdict — no surprise — was negative: Lincoln was labeled everything from a racist totalitarian to a teller of dirty jokes.
I covered the conference as a reporter, but what really unnerved me was a counter-conference of scholars to refute the earlier one. These scholars drew a picture of Lincoln that only our touchy-freely age could conjure up. The man who oversaw the most savage war in our history was described — by his admirers, remember — as "nonjudgmental," "unmoralistic," "comfortable with ambiguity."
I felt the way a friend of mine felt as we later watched the unveiling of the Richmond statue in a subdued ceremony: "but he’s so small!"
The statue in Richmond was indeed small: like nearly every Lincoln statue put up in the past half century, it was life-size and was placed at ground level, a conscious rejection of the heroic — approachable and human, yes, but not something to look up to. The Richmond episode taught me that Americans have lost the language to explain Lincoln’s greatness even to ourselves. Earlier generations said they wanted their children to be like Lincoln: principled, kind, compassionate, resolute. Today we want Lincoln to be like us.
This helps to explain the long string of recent books in which writers have presented a Lincoln made after their own image. We’ve had Lincoln as humorist and Lincoln as manic-depressive, Lincoln the business sage, the conservative Lincoln and the liberal Lincoln, the emancipator and the racist, the stoic philosopher, the Christian, the atheist — Lincoln over easy and Lincoln scrambled.
What’s often missing, though, is the timeless Lincoln, the Lincoln whom all generations our own no less than that of 1909, can lay claim to. Lucky for us, those memorializers from a century ago — and, through them, Lincoln himself — have left us a hint of where to find him. The Lincoln Memorial is the most visited of our presidential monuments. Here is where we find the Lincoln who endures: in the words he left us, defining the country we’ve inherited. Here is the Lincoln who can be endlessly renewed and who. 200 years after his birth, retains the power to renew us.
In the author’s opinion, the counter-conference
选项
A、rectified the judgment by those carefully selected scholars.
B、offered a brand new reassessment perspective.
C、came up with somewhat favourable conclusions.
D、resulted in similar disparaging remarks on Lincoln.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/43iO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Whichofthefollowingcountry/countriesdraftedtheproposalforchangestoadraftUNresolutiononIraq?
WhichofthefollowingisNOToneofthemajorbranchesoflinguistics?
WHO,workingcloselywithitsMemberStates,otherUnitedNationsagenciesandnon-governmentalorganizations,isfocusingonma
ANicePlacetoVisitHavingheardthatTorontowasbecomingoneofthecontinent’snoblestcities,weflewfromNewYorkto
Adeputysheriff’sdashmountedcameracaptureshistornadochase.Racingjustminutesbehindthemonsterstormhelooksfordam
Duringthe1970’sand1980’spoliticalextremismandterrorismfrequentlyfocusedon"nationalliberation"andeconomicissues.
Artneedsasuper-richeliteinordertoflourish,accordingtoprofessorofEnglishatLondonUniversity,LisaJardine.Jardine
我直到几十年以后,才体会到云彩更多,霞光才愈美丽。从云翳中外露的霞光,才是璀璨多彩的。生命中不是只有快乐,也不是只有痛苦,快乐和痛苦是相生相成,互相衬托的。快乐是一抹徽云.痛苦是压城的乌云.这不同的云彩。在你生命的天边重叠着,在“夕阳无限好”的
Thetheoryofuniversalgrammarwasproposedby______.
Iusedtolookatmyclosetandseeclothes.Thesedays,wheneverIcastmyeyesuponthestacksofshoesandhangersofshirts,
随机试题
某单位的办公室秘书小马接到领导的指示,要求其提供一份最新的中国互联网络发展状况统计情况。小马从网上下载了一份未经整理的原稿,按下列要求帮助他对该文档进行排版操作并按指定的文件名进行保存。打开考生文件夹下的文档“Word素材.docx”,将其另存为“Wo
维持人体内环境稳定最重要的神经内分泌器官是
撞击式分级颗粒物采样器把粒径不同的颗粒物分别捕获在各段捕集板上的原理是
对不予医师执业注册有异议的可以
属于桥梁附属设施的是()。
工程预付款的预付时间应不迟于()。
账簿中书写的文字和数字一般应占格距的大小是()。
下列各句中,句意明确,没有语病的一项是()
()是重庆火锅的主要原料。
第一个软件开发项目对工作、工作之间的逻辑关系和工作持续时间都不确定,于是项目经理对项目费用、时间、效能三方面进行了综合分析,对可能发生的风险作出概率估计。这种时间管理的方法属于网络计划技术,除此之外还可以采用其他技术方法进行时间管理。第二个软件开
最新回复
(
0
)