Generation Divide II

It's not at all
likely, but had
Lincoln not been
assassinated,
next year he'd be
two hundred,
about two years
from the Confederacy
reaching 150.

Lincoln ended up
being one of those
odd fellows. He
actually made his
name twice on
the issue of
emancipation,
once in debates
he lost to Douglas,
and again when
he actually
proclaimed it.

And yet, today
you can't get
away from the talk
that suggests
he didn't much
care about it.

Today, of course,
there are no
great men, not
since we conjured
one out of the last
guy to be shot dead
(somebody remind
poor Garfield's
ghost that he
lost out in that
lottery, too).

Reagan invented
Reagonomics, but
apparently
that's all he did,
after Nixon went
to China and before
Clinton bathed himself
in primary colors.

Clinton sent us off
into a number
of international
conflicts, but he
still gets no flack,
possibly because
they ended in "ia,"
and that's acceptable.

Bush should've said
he wanted to go to
Arabia.

But Lincoln,
he was one of
those guys
we used to think
a great deal of.

Maybe not so much
anymore. But he'd
no doubt have
something great
to say about it.