Nicole Hemmer: Search for Renewal After Tucson Tragedy: What Palin Missed, What Obama Got Right
[Nicole Hemmer is a historian of American politics and media. She currently lectures at Manchester College, Indiana.]
There are few areas liberals and conservatives see eye to eye when it comes to Barack Obama. But both supporters and detractors agree: The president gives a good speech....
In calling on Americans to better themselves and the nation, Obama joined a long line of national leaders who turned moments of tragedy into opportunities for renewal. In 1863, as he stood on the ground where 50,000 soldiers had died in three days fighting, Abraham Lincoln seized the opportunity to not only commemorate the dead but to challenge Americans to secure the freedom for which Union soldiers had given their lives.
In 1963, as black southerners faced fire hoses and murderous mobs in their march for equality, Martin Luther King, Jr. counseled them not to turn to violence. He instead insisted that civil rights activists “rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
And when Dr. King was killed in Memphis in 1968, Robert Kennedy took the stage in Indianapolis and told the crowd – and the country – that they faced a choice. They could feed their outrage and anger, pushing the nation toward more division and more hatred. Or they could follow the path King laid out for them and “replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand.”...
Read entire article at CS Monitor
There are few areas liberals and conservatives see eye to eye when it comes to Barack Obama. But both supporters and detractors agree: The president gives a good speech....
In calling on Americans to better themselves and the nation, Obama joined a long line of national leaders who turned moments of tragedy into opportunities for renewal. In 1863, as he stood on the ground where 50,000 soldiers had died in three days fighting, Abraham Lincoln seized the opportunity to not only commemorate the dead but to challenge Americans to secure the freedom for which Union soldiers had given their lives.
In 1963, as black southerners faced fire hoses and murderous mobs in their march for equality, Martin Luther King, Jr. counseled them not to turn to violence. He instead insisted that civil rights activists “rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
And when Dr. King was killed in Memphis in 1968, Robert Kennedy took the stage in Indianapolis and told the crowd – and the country – that they faced a choice. They could feed their outrage and anger, pushing the nation toward more division and more hatred. Or they could follow the path King laid out for them and “replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand.”...