Since we were talking about Abraham Lincoln...

Especially since Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is currently in cinemas across the nation, we remember the Emancipation Proclamation. 150 years ago it was an executive order issued by President Lincoln that proclaimed that slaves that were held in the territory controlled by the Confederate States of America were freed. Now granted Confederate held territory not under the control of the Union this order didn't have any effect. It was on Confederate territory that were held by Union forces during the Civil War where this order took effect.

I'm only noting that because there are those out there who continue to argue that President Lincoln never freed any slaves. Surely there are others out there who are better able to argue that position that I'm able to at the moment.

In looking for materials on this subject I found this Forbes posting that asked one question, "150 Years After The Emancipation Proclamation, Are We Free?" It isn't so much an article that talks about equality amongst various "minority" groups in America as much as it is a philosophical argument about the freedom of the individual and its relationship with government. It notes the positives of the Proclamation even if while a segment of America's population were no longer enslaved they still had to fight for their freedom years after that fact.

Also you can read an article about the Proclamation courtesy of the Nation Archives.

Finally, I got a chance to see "Lincoln"

On Christmas Eve I finally had a chance to see Skyfall, the lastest James Bond effort. On New Year's Eve I finally had a chance to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. This needs to become a recurring tradition!

Lincoln could be a film in the same vein as say The American President - well aside from the romantic comedy aspects it's still a film that involves politics. I also have compared Lincoln to The West Wing TV series. They all did tackle some issues that were important to the eras that they had been set in.

In the case of Lincoln it was slavery and the Civil War. Basically what we saw in this film was President Abraham Lincoln securing the votes in Congress for the 13th Amendment. Not only that he also had to contend with ending the Civil War. In fact news of representatives coming from the Confederate States of America wanting to talk about the end of the war figured in the political machinations of enacting an amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery.

We also learned more about the other players involved other than Lincoln. Many members of Congress - Representatives & Senators - played a role in making the 13th Amendment a reality. Just like the effort it took to make many of today's policy objectives a reality. For example look no further than "Obamacare" as one example of many.

Granted it's not the most exciting movie to watch. There's only one scene of the movie that was action packed which is mainly of Black soldiers fighting against the Confederate army. Then there's a scene that shows the bombardment of a Southern city although we didn't see anyone in that scene. It's a movie for the history buffs and President Lincoln (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) does come alive for us in this movie as well as the many other players in this drama!

When I came to see this movie again at River East there was a packed theater to see this movie. This movie and Skyfall has been out since November and people are still coming to see it. Spielberg must have done something right for it to have the appeal it does. :)