In January of 2009 the 44th President of the United States of America will be sworn into office. Interestingly, though he is a Democrat, his latest book of choice is titled Team of Rivals. It focuses on how Abe Lincoln (a Republican) put together his cabinet. And it is quite a read I hear. For those of us that don’t remember who, and how, and why Lincoln did what he did, it was apparently a bit revolutionary if not controversial at the time.
All that to say, I was reading about a guy that was heading into a restaurant in Philadelphia. Before he entered, he saw a homeless man holding a sign that read: Please vote for Obama. I need the money. As the customer was seated at his table, he was then greeted by a server that had on an Obama tie. When the check came, the man stated that he was going to practice Obama’s “spread the wealth” idea. Instead of leaving the server the tip, he was going to give it to the homeless Obama supporter outside. Needless to say, the waiter was furious. But the man left and did just that dropping a $10 bill into the hand of the man outside in need.
Shortly after hearing about this incident, I was digging through some old files and ironically came across this quote from dear old Abe. Our 16th President. It goes like this:
“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independnece. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” – Abraham Lincoln
And with that, just my, or better yet, a past President’s thoughts for your day.
S.