READ THE TRANSCRIPT

BILL MOYERS: I had a history professor at the University of Texas - Robert Cotter - who believed the most remarkable quality of Abraham Lincoln was his empathy for people he didn't personally know. The working man. The soldier in battle. His widow and orphans.

Ordinary folks caught in the undertow of events. We could use that kind of empathy today. As Washington obsessed all week over the fate of one nominee to the cabinet, and as we watched hearings about the failure of watchdog agencies going to sleep on the job, we heard almost nothing of the people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives. Some of us born in the Depression still remember the song made famous by the Carter Family singers, called the "Worried Man Blues".

"I went across that river and I lay down to sleep. When I woke up there were shackles on my feet."

The day my father was fired from his job at Manly's Appliance Store, he came walking home as if he had shackles on his feet. I still remember the look on his face. He wasn't yet 50, but had suddenly turned old, the way a lot of people look today who are losing their jobs. Their stomachs are knotted with fear as the life they had come to expect is fading fast. Not because of their own failures but because our political and financial elites rigged the economy for their own advantage.

John F. Kennedy famously said, "Life is unfair," and so it is. But it wouldn't feel as unfair if the shackles wound up instead on the well-heeled feet of Wall Street and Washington's elect. That's the change we need, the change we can really believe in.

That's it for the JOURNAL.

Essay: We Could Use Abraham Lincoln’s Empathy in Washington Today

February 6, 2009, Updated February 14, 2015

As we celebrate Presidents Day, tributes to Abraham Lincoln and his achievements tend to center around the Thirteenth Amendment and his steadfast dedication to keeping the country intact. In this essay, Bill Moyers reflects on another legacy of the 16th president — his “empathy for people he didn’t personally know.”

“The working man. The soldier in battle. His widow and orphans.” These ordinary, struggling Americans mattered to Abraham Lincoln.

Bill laments that today, Washington politicians are more wrapped up in petty bureaucratic concerns than the real “people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives.” The working man who walks 21 miles to his job because our public infrastructure has failed him (and the millions more who can’t find work at all). The soldier who returns from battle unable to find work, housing or the support he needs to recover. The single mother who works longer hours yet remains worse off than her peers in other countries.

And as billionaires who oppose government assistance buy our elections and put their interests ahead of everyone else, Bill reminds us that millions of Americans struggle “not because of their own failures, but because our political and financial elites rigged the economy for their own advantage.”

republish
  • submit to reddit