Nation in search of summer solace
By Larry Berz
To my astonished eyes, current Caribou cinema posters boldly proclaim and advertise our deeply honored, yet martyred 16th President as “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer” What hath God wrought? My imagination pictures hordes of overperspired late summer citizens flocking to air conditioned cubical comfort to watch “Honest” Abe hacking and thwacking his way through national subversives of the supernatural kind.
Is this comedy or tragedy? To marginalize dear Lincoln, whose aversion to needless bloodshed uplifted him beyond the complex horrors of administrating our national existence through four years of Civil War, seems disturbing and distorting at the same time. In spite of recent events in Colorado, the likelihood that conspicuous commercial consumption of carnage will bear profitable fruit for the industrial cinematic complex, compels me to sound the alarm.
I suppose our national heroes stand exposed for caricature and public targeting and teasing. One need only experience the treatment accorded national leadership and celebrityhood from the clever minds of “Saturday Night Live” staffers since 1975. And I roundly admit that I’ve roared and guffawed at the funniest offerings. And yet … a savage filmcraft caricature of Lincoln troubles me. I am aware that Lincoln did receive in his own day merciless caricature from the national and international press. His immense height and ungainly stature as well as his oversized facial features remained favorite subjects from the pens of both hostile friends and well intentioned enemies alike.
But the climate of 2012 demands, I believe, a very different popular message, one which could place Abraham Lincoln into a new context altogether. May we not embrace Lincoln today as a role model for our reconnection to the Universe — a stage for new flights into Freedom? May we see Lincoln as a bearer of the three great gifts of our astronomical heritage? First, a renewed sense of awe in contemplating the height, depth, and breadth of our great celestial spaces. Second, as a champion of national unity, could not Lincoln connect with our hearts and minds to apply a needed balm or unity to scratch and soothe the cosmic itch for meaning and purpose. Thirdly, could not Lincoln’s place in the context of our American Experience help us to recognize the beauty of the Universe, a realm beyond price, where both spiritual and scientific Truth goes marching on?
These are my thoughts and suggestions to a State and nation in search of summer solace.
Larry Berz of Caribou is director of Easton’s Francis Malcolm Planetarium and astronomy instructor at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
