Site search
sponsored by
News
ENLARGE
According to our records, today is The Union's 144th birthday. None of us were alive then, so you'll have to take my word for it.
They say The Union was started to help Abe Lincoln get re-elected, which he had little trouble doing a month later. Mostly, I suspect, because he was seen as a moderate, who believed in the notion of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. If Abe didn't like you, he probably named you to a Cabinet post.
That was long before it cost one gazillion dollars to get elected, so there were fewer favors to repay.
We were called the Grass Valley Morning Union back then and proudly proclaimed that we were "Founded in 1864 to Preserve The Union - one and inseparable."
We edited that a bit after we realized we were no longer inseparable. I think it was around the time the first City Council decided it would be a good idea to build a drugstore next door to a yoga farm. The new slogan read: Founded in 1864 to Preserve The Union, one and insufferable.
We are working on a new business model that will have us print the paper on hemp, with a slogan that reads: The Union. Founded in 1864. Read it. Smoke it. Forget about it.
We will finally, then, start selling prescriptions, since I have been getting calls for years from readers threatening to cancel their prescription - rather than subscription.
As you have probably read, Lincoln was assassinated just a few months after we helped get him re-elected. Most readers blamed us, of course. "Now look what you went and did!" one letter writer screamed to the publisher. "If it hadn't been for you, he'd still be alive!"
Readers never remember the good things we do, or the 10,000 words we spell correctly each and every day.
I can't help notice, on this 144th birthday of ours, how our nation has almost come full circle, standing here on the eve of another historic election.
In March 1865, with slavery all but dead and the war's end in sight, Lincoln delivered his second inauguration speech.
"Fondly do we hope - fervently do we pray - that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away," he said. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."
Today ... 144 years since we published our first edition in support of Lincoln and his dreams to end slavery ... our nation is on the verge of electing its first black president.
No matter your political affiliation, there is something very special about that.
And if he is indeed elected, Barack Obama will have his work cut out for him. Our nation has lots of wounds that need healing and we are still praying that "this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."
But if Obama really wants to heal this country, he may want to take a page or two from Lincoln, the very man who declared in a speech that this nation of ours was dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal." The door was at least open just enough for black slaves to see some hope on the other side.
Most Americans, I suspect, are tired of the partisan politics that have divided this nation much as it was divided 144 years ago. Only this time there are blue and red states.
I hope the Democrats, who will likely own the White House and Congress at least for the next few years, do not see this as a rubber-stamp to promote their own brand of extremism. I don't think Americans are ready for the kind of "change" being promoted by the Far Left. Not any more than they were the Far Right.
As a friend of mine suggested, "I hope he (Obama) gets to the White House and is overwhelmed by the task at hand and realizes the need to surround himself with people who are at least close to centrists."
The problem I have really rests in the unknown. Change can be one of the most difficult things to manage and if mismanaged can blow up in your face.
I'd feel a whole lot better, for example, if he had someone like Colin Powell at his side. Lincoln was a brilliant diplomat and it's exactly the kind of choice he'd make.
That aside, this birthday of ours is really rather historic, when you think about The Union's connection to Lincoln and what he stood for. How could we, under the circumstances, not applaud the prospect of a black president?
Standing before black federal troops, who marched miles to see his second inauguration speech, Lincoln delivered hope: "With malice toward none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right."
Happy birthday.
Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299, jeffa@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
They say The Union was started to help Abe Lincoln get re-elected, which he had little trouble doing a month later. Mostly, I suspect, because he was seen as a moderate, who believed in the notion of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. If Abe didn't like you, he probably named you to a Cabinet post.
That was long before it cost one gazillion dollars to get elected, so there were fewer favors to repay.
We were called the Grass Valley Morning Union back then and proudly proclaimed that we were "Founded in 1864 to Preserve The Union - one and inseparable."
We edited that a bit after we realized we were no longer inseparable. I think it was around the time the first City Council decided it would be a good idea to build a drugstore next door to a yoga farm. The new slogan read: Founded in 1864 to Preserve The Union, one and insufferable.
We are working on a new business model that will have us print the paper on hemp, with a slogan that reads: The Union. Founded in 1864. Read it. Smoke it. Forget about it.
We will finally, then, start selling prescriptions, since I have been getting calls for years from readers threatening to cancel their prescription - rather than subscription.
As you have probably read, Lincoln was assassinated just a few months after we helped get him re-elected. Most readers blamed us, of course. "Now look what you went and did!" one letter writer screamed to the publisher. "If it hadn't been for you, he'd still be alive!"
Readers never remember the good things we do, or the 10,000 words we spell correctly each and every day.
I can't help notice, on this 144th birthday of ours, how our nation has almost come full circle, standing here on the eve of another historic election.
In March 1865, with slavery all but dead and the war's end in sight, Lincoln delivered his second inauguration speech.
"Fondly do we hope - fervently do we pray - that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away," he said. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."
Today ... 144 years since we published our first edition in support of Lincoln and his dreams to end slavery ... our nation is on the verge of electing its first black president.
No matter your political affiliation, there is something very special about that.
And if he is indeed elected, Barack Obama will have his work cut out for him. Our nation has lots of wounds that need healing and we are still praying that "this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."
But if Obama really wants to heal this country, he may want to take a page or two from Lincoln, the very man who declared in a speech that this nation of ours was dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal." The door was at least open just enough for black slaves to see some hope on the other side.
Most Americans, I suspect, are tired of the partisan politics that have divided this nation much as it was divided 144 years ago. Only this time there are blue and red states.
I hope the Democrats, who will likely own the White House and Congress at least for the next few years, do not see this as a rubber-stamp to promote their own brand of extremism. I don't think Americans are ready for the kind of "change" being promoted by the Far Left. Not any more than they were the Far Right.
As a friend of mine suggested, "I hope he (Obama) gets to the White House and is overwhelmed by the task at hand and realizes the need to surround himself with people who are at least close to centrists."
The problem I have really rests in the unknown. Change can be one of the most difficult things to manage and if mismanaged can blow up in your face.
I'd feel a whole lot better, for example, if he had someone like Colin Powell at his side. Lincoln was a brilliant diplomat and it's exactly the kind of choice he'd make.
That aside, this birthday of ours is really rather historic, when you think about The Union's connection to Lincoln and what he stood for. How could we, under the circumstances, not applaud the prospect of a black president?
Standing before black federal troops, who marched miles to see his second inauguration speech, Lincoln delivered hope: "With malice toward none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right."
Happy birthday.
Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299, jeffa@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
