If Obama would say what Abe Lincoln said...............

My husband and I attended the Sunday performance of St. Louis Symphony which is a rare event indeed for us. But I wanted to hear Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" which I really didn't know much about. Aaron Copland wrote the music and chose the words of Abraham Lincoln used for the narration shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was asked to write something that would encourage Americans to support the war effort because his music often included parts of favorite tunes that people would recognize.

The music itself is inspiring, especially when played by a world class symphony like the one in St. Louis, but the narration is what struck me profoundly. The narrator was a Mr. Wintley Phipps of Florida. In addition to his primary profession as a pastor, his major life's work has been as an activist and founder of the U.S. Dream Academy for which he has received many awards. He has a deep bass voice that sent shivers through the audience which was evidenced by the standing ovation and "Bravos" shouted from all levels of symphony hall.

I want to find one of the passages Mr. Phipps read. It was Abraham Lincoln saying that he and Congress were inconsequential as individuals but their decisions would set the course for the country in ways that would be felt for generations. (If anyone knows where that passage comes from, I'd really like to receive it.)

Mr. Phipps is a native of Trinidad and Tabago who studied religion in Canada before emigrating to the U.S. His skin is dark like President Obama's which made me imagine for a moment our current president saying the same powerful words spoken by Lincoln 150 years ago. Imagine President Obama calling on Congress to challenge themselves to put the good of the country as a whole above their own selfish goals. Imagine President Obama asking the Republicans in Congress to take to heart the needs of the common people in order to strengthen our nation as a whole. Imagine that kind of patriotism coming from today's Congress.

Many writers who know more about economics than I do have written about the similarities between now and then when it comes to the incredibly debilitating chasm between rich and poor in our country today. The comparisons made are with those periods in our history when the mighty few controlled the lives of the powerless many. It is clearly understood by most of us that a representative democracy cannot flourish when the majority of the people are not truly represented by the decision makers.

I would love to see President Obama use his amazing rhetorical skills to tell the American people how dangerously close we are to sliding into a plutocratic system where the majority will have no power and be made servants of the handful of families that control all the world's wealth.

For awhile in our history there was a general belief in "noblesse oblige" in that the fortunate few, especially those who inherited their wealth, had an obligation to the rest of society if not for moral comfort at least as a precaution against national disintegration.

We don't seem to be able to get that message through to our members of Congress today, and I'm not sure it is even possible given the power of a few extremely selfish, politically motivated flamethrowers who are willing to take the country down with them if they don't get what they want.

Would that we had a Mr. Phipps to speak with that deep resonance to raise the alarm and call us to action today.

Susan Cunningham
Pacific MO