16th President of the U.S.A.

Abraham Lincoln 

(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Second Inaugural Address

Washington, D.C.

March 4, 1865

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 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 do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm

__________________________________________

Q & A - Steven Spielberg Talks with TIME About President Lincoln

Oct. 25, 2012

*RICK STENGEL: Abraham Lincoln is in many ways the most compelling figure in U.S. history ...

You use a fascinating framing device for the movie: the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.

STEVEN SPIELBERG:

The 13th Amendment was critical to Lincoln, because he knew that if the war ended, this would never get through. The South couldn’t live without slavery. They might cease hostilities, but Lincoln always believed that unless we abolish slavery before this war ends, the end of this war will just be a momentary pause between this war and the next war. So he knew he had to get this thing done, but he didn’t have the votes. That’s at the heart of our movie, this fight to get the votes, to do the right thing.

There’s an English expression, “Cometh the moment, cometh the man.” How much of it was Lincoln at that moment, or did the moment make him?

STEVEN SPIELBERG:

Lincoln had the ambition. He had a beautiful vision for America. But I don’t know what kind of progress he would have made without the crisis that fell into his lap. I also don’t know what kind of a President FDR would have become without the Great Depression and World War II or what Kennedy would ultimately have been remembered for without all of us standing on the brink of nuclear holocaust during the Cuban missile crisis.

Let’s talk about his temperament. His leadership style in many ways seems so alien to what we value today.

STEVEN SPIELBERG:

Taking all of his traits—of long, deep thought, of staring deeply into the future, taking the broad view, respecting the past, exploring deep into the cold depths of himself while his entire Cabinet sat around waiting for him to make a decision about anything—I’m not sure there’s a mayoral position that would be suitable for him in this kind of adrenaline-fueled era that we all exist in. Even then, the newspapers were going after him.

One of the things that come through in the movie is Lincoln’s relationship with his wife, his relationship with his youngest son. He would get down on the ground all the time. It showed that he wasn’t that statue that was standing up there 20 feet high.

STEVEN SPIELBERG:

He certainly did everything that he needed to do to hold his family together, not just this country. He had lost [his 11-year-old son] Willie two years ago to typhoid fever. Mary spent years mourning the loss of Willie. In [Doris Kearns Goodwin’s] book Team of Rivals, what precedes our story is two years of Mary shunning the whole family and spending time holding séances and trying to reach out and communicate across the thin veil to Willie. Lincoln had that burden on his shoulders. He was really carrying a lot of weight during that time.

* Richard Stengel was Time magazine's 16th managing editor from 2006 to 2013. From 1992 through 1994, he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on the South African leader’s autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom.” Stengel later wrote “Mandela’s Way,” a New York Times best-seller, on his experience working with Mandela.

https://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/25/steven-spielberg-talks-with-times-rick-stengel-about-ambition-compromise-and-what-to-wear-while-filming-a-president/

FROM ONE BLOOD

ACTS 17 : 16 - 33

The Philosophers at Athens

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them.

MIKHAIL + МИХАИЛ

Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia

The eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union

(2 March 1931- 30 Aug. 2022)

Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way. And therefore a reformist leadership was necessary, and that leadership came in 1985 when we started to lay down our plans for our country, perestroika and new thinking for the International Community. The new thinking postulated [that] we are one planet regardless of confrontations, ideological and physiological struggles; we are one planet, one human civilization. There are others living in the world, so why should we act in a way that could blow up our planet, our spaceship Earth? Writers, intellectuals, and others as a result of glasnost could speak out freely and openly, could call a spade a spade. This entire mechanism was set in motion, and as a result, in February 1986, less than a year after my coming to power in our country, at the 27th Congress of the Communist Party, we said as a result of summing up our thinking, our analysis, our conclusions, we stated that the world, even though there were many conflicts and contradictions, is interrelated, interdependent, and that the world is becoming increasingly a single whole. And if we are one, if we're all a single whole, if we are all mutually interdependent, then we must act differently. That was one of the most important points of departure in thinking about the future. It was very important for developing our plans, for developing domestic policies and particularly foreign policy.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/int_mikhailgorbachev.html

Titanic - 1912

15 April 1912

The sinking of the world’s most famous ship generated three waves of Titanic mania. The first hit popular consciousness immediately after the disaster ...

The First World War, and then the Second quieted the Titanic storm; the loss of hundreds of thousands of men on the battlefields of Europe, the whole-scale destruction of cities and communities around the world, and Hitler’s single-minded plan to wipe out an entire race of people, together with other “undesirables,” placed the sinking of the ship, with its death toll of 1,500, toward the bottom end of the league of global tragedies.

The mid-1950s is generally considered to represent the second wave of Titanic fever. In the midst of the cold war—when there was a perceived threat that, at any moment, the world could end in nuclear Armageddon—the Titanic represented a containable, understandable tragedy. A mist of nostalgia hung over the disaster—nostalgia for a society that maintained fixed roles, in which each man and woman knew his or her place; for a certain gentility, or at least an imagined gentility, by which people behaved according to a strict set of rules; for a tragedy that gave its participants time to consider their fates.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-the-titanic-still-fascinates-us-98137822/

Patriotic War - 1812

Napoleon's invasion is better known in Russia as the Patriotic War, not to be confused with the Great Patriotic War which refers to Hitler's, rather than Napoleon's, invasion of Russia. The Patriotic War is also occasionally referred to as the "War of 1812," which is not to be confused with the conflict of the same name between the United Kingdom and the United States. 

French invasion of Russia (also known as the Russian Campaign) in 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. The campaign reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a small fraction of their initial strength. Its sustained role in Russian culture may be seen in Tolstoy's War and Peace and the Soviet identification with it during the German invasion of 1941 to 1944.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/French_invasion_of_Russia

Yekatit 12

The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame

Ian Campbell, 2017

Feb 19, 1937 – Feb 21, 1937

On Friday 19th February 1937, following an abortive attack by a handful of insurgents on Mussolini's High Command in the Italian-occupied nation state of Ethiopia, 'repression squads' of armed Blackshirts and Fascist civilians were unleashed on the defenseless residents of the capital city Addis Ababa. In three terror-filled days and nights of arson, murder and looting, thousands of innocent and unsuspecting men, women and children were roasted alive, shot, bludgeoned, stabbed to death, or blown to pieces with hand-grenades. The incident is popularly known as Yekatit 12, the date concerned in the Ethiopian calendar. Meanwhile the notorious Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, infamous for his atrocities in Libya, took the opportunity to add to the carnage by eliminating the intelligentsia and nobility of the ancient Ethiopian empire in a pogrom that swept across the land. In a richly illustrated and work backed up by meticulous and scholarly research, the author reconstructs and analyses one of Fascist Italy's least known atrocities, which he estimates eliminated 19-20 per cent of the capital's population. He exposes the hitherto little known cover-up conducted at the highest levels of the British government, which enabled the facts of one of the most hideous civilian massacres of all time to be concealed, and the perpetrators to walk free.

oxford.universitypressscholarship.com

ABUNE PETROS

Ethiopian Orthodox bishop martyred on the 29th of July 1936 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the struggle against colonialism and oppression. 

Fisseha Mekuria and Sven Rubenson (1921-2013)

Lund, Sweden

“For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.” Philippians 1:29

In the monastery he urged the priests and monks to fast. He himself started to fast and pray for the mercy of God to the people of Ethiopia and prepared himself for the big challenge that was waiting ahead for him: 

“My earnest expectation and hope, is that I will not be put to shame in anything, but my Lord Jesus Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Philippians 1:20

During these difficult times, he started to question in his preaching: “How a Christian country as Italy could undertake such a hideous terror of occupation on another peaceful Christian country that is Ethiopia?” For him, all Christians were brother and sister pilgrims helping each other in this world on the way to meet God in Heaven. With that, he began his crusade against the invading army’s terror and killing machinery. He went further and condemned all the violent actions and killings of civilians by the invading army.

During these times, there were some EOC priests who out of fear of the terror of the (occupation) army accepted the Italian leadership in Addis Ababa.

Through these priests, the fascist army sent letters to win the support of the popular and respected bishop Abune Petros to its camp, to accept the powerful army of Italy as government and stop with his preaching against the violence of the army on civilians and the patriots. If he did this, they promised him the best house quarters and a peaceful life in Addis Ababa. Abune Petros saw these letters as an incitement to commit sin against God, his Christian belief and conscience. With that, he refused to accept the offer and stayed in fasting and prayer in the monastery of Debre-Libanos. 

“Choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” Hebrews 11:25

Abune Petros continued his teachings and preaching to the people to stand-up for their belief and conviction and that God would visit the downtrodden people of Ethiopia soon. He went on further and preached against Italy’s right to occupy Ethiopia with terror and violence. He exhorted the people not to be afraid of the terror and violence from the occupying army. 

“I say to you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who has the power to kill the body and after that has the authority to cast into hell; yes I tell you fear Him.” Luke 12:4-5

The soldiers were given order to arrest the Abune and bring him to court for treason against the Italian occupation. While he was in prison waiting for court appearance, both the priests in the city and the officers of Italy tried to convince him to accept the Italian occupation. And finally gave him the following ultimatum: To stop preaching against the occupying army’s violence and terror against civilians and the patriots, accept the Italian authorities in Addis Ababa and finally condemn the patriots as bandits. Otherwise, he was told that he would lose his life.

Abune Petros refused to comply to the ultimatum set by his tormentors and through the (Italian) interpreter gave the following answer to the interrogating officers of the invading army: “The cry of my countrymen who died due to your nerve-gas and terror machinery will never allow my conscience to accept your ultimatum. How can I see my God if I give a blind eye to such a crime?”

“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is My law, do not fear the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them like garment ...” Isaiah 51:7-8

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthews 5:10

After this, a quickly assembled court sentenced Abune Petros to death. The news of the death sentence on the popular bishop of Ethiopia spread over the whole country. People began coming to Addis to say farewell of their beloved bishop who stood-up for the righteous cause which God have called him, for the right of the people of Ethiopia to freedom and independence and against the terror and violence of the invading army.

He was taken to his execution place where many people and the fascist army officers and generals were gathered, and were told to say his last speech. We cite the Ethiopian Orthodox church newspaper Vol. 1, No. 8.9.10, 1945 for the account: “When Abune Petros came to the place of execution and was given to say his last words, he took his hand cross and removed the blue cloth that was wrapped around it and blessed the people at the four corners of the world and said the following last words: “My countrymen, do not believe the fascists if they tell you that the patriots are bandits, the patriots are people who yearn for freedom from the terrors of fascism. Bandits are the soldiers who are standing in front of me and you, who come from afar, terrorise and violently occupy a weak and peaceful country: our Ethiopia. May God give the people of Ethiopia the strength to resist and never bow down to the fascist army and its violence.  May the Ethiopian earth never accept the invading army’s rule.” After that a swarm of bullets from the execution platoon pierced and killed our beloved bishop Abune Petros.

The fascist army wanted by any means to cover up the crime they did against Abune Petros and Ethiopia by forbidding everybody and all writings about his execution. Because of his popularity both inside and outside of Ethiopia, they thought it might injure their policy of occupying Ethiopia due to the domestic and international opinion that grew against this act. However hard they tried to stop the publicity, the example of Abune Petros shines in all people who love the truth unto this day.  

The popular Ethiopian Poet-Laureate Tsegaye Gebremedhin has illustrated the last days of Abune Petros' life by a theatre play called: “Petros at that Hour”.

A statue of Abune Petros was raised in the capital city Addis Ababa 10 years after his death, as a reminder to coming generations of: his unwavering stand for the truth, his unbending courage to stand up against every form of violence against humanity, his integrity and commitment not to give in for short term gain or threat. Above all, his unwavering conviction and belief that we all will stand one day and answer to our deeds in this life before God.

http://www.ethiopians.com/abune_petros.htm

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

+ St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

+ Daniel 12 : 1

“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;

And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book."

+ Revelation 12 : 7 - 8

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

+ Acts 12

7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”

21 So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. 22 And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” 23 Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.

24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.