The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument

Of all that we saw in Washington D.C., I think the Lincoln Memorial is my favorite. Above is Scott reading Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural address, which is engraved on the wall to one side of the statue, the Gettysburg address is engraved on the other. I'm struck with what a great leader and statesman Abraham Lincoln was, how his goal was to save the union at all costs, and how very much it cost to do it.

I'm certainly no historian, but I have always believed that the Reconstruction period following the Civil War would have been very different had Lincoln not been assassinated -- and that we likely would not have the conflicts and racial tensions that we struggle with to this day, had Lincoln lived to put into action his philosophy expressed in this 2nd Inaugural Address: "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."

Go to http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm to read the entire speech.


We were not able to go up inside the Washington Monument -- free tickets are distributed daily, starting at 8 a.m., and are usually gone by 8:30, so we weren't even close. So David, Tara, Mindy, and Heather, you'll have to go to the deep dark recesses of your memory to recall the view of the Capitol Mall from the top of the Washington Monument. Good luck -- Heather will need it the most -- I think she was 2 years old when she last saw it!