Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

You will undoubtedly recognize the Lincoln Memorial. It seems to show up in every film set in DC. And just so you know. The memorial is far from the capital building and there is no way Reese Witherspoon walked in those heels all the way to the Lincoln Memorial in Legally Blonde II.

There's been a lot of talk about Lincoln lately. People have been comparing Lincoln and Obama (two skinny dudes from Illinois). People mention Lincoln often as one leader who moved us closer to racial justice. He's even mentioned in Will-I-Am's new song.

A while back I read Assata Shakur's biography. Interesting book if you haven't read it. If you don't know who she is, she was a black civil rights activist in the sixties and seventies. She was in a car pulled over by police in New Jersey on May 2, 1973. The police claim she was involved in shooting and killing an officer. She claims she was injured so severely by police that there is no way she could have. She was convicted of murder, but escaped and has been living in Cuba.

To make a short story longer, in her book she challenges the assertion that Lincoln was such a great guy. She points out that he never really intended to end slavery (and said as much). She's right that he said that at one point. But he did speak out against slavery before he became president as well. What he never did was advocate for equality. In fact, according to a recent Smithsonian article, he very specifically said that he was "not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people."

So here's my question. When we remember Lincoln as only the president who freed the slaves, are we doing a disservice to ourselves and future generations? Is it similar to how I have forgotten most of the nasty things my father did now that he is gone? Is that o.k.? Do we need heroes so badly that it is worth overlooking their warts? Why?