Lagura: Too ugly to be president, not man enough either

Fr. Flor Lagura SVD

Abraham Lincoln

(1809-1865)

BORN in a humble Kentucky log-cabin, Abraham Lincoln experienced hardships since early childhood. To help his hardworking parents feed the family, the young boy hunted and fished. He even split wood to sell as fuel to neighbors. Supplementing his meager schooling, he read books voraciously.

Tall, lanky yet strong, the young man engaged in the gentlemanly sport of wrestling. Losing some bouts but winning others, he earned some money.

After teaching himself law by reading legal tomes, he applied for then passed the Illinois bar. Trying his hand in politics where he failed to get elected 7 times. In an era when false news already abounded, political foes tried to spread damaging reports about his sexuality. Lincoln and his close friend, Joshua Fry Speed, shared the same rented room. According to wagging tongues, they also shared the same bed, an unproven allegation. Besides, in those days it was normal for bachelors to share the same room, even the same bed in order to save on rent.

Lincoln’s marriage to Mary Todd with whom he had four children was proof of his manhood.

Undaunted by setbacks in politics and rumors swirling around his masculinity, Lincoln ran for the U.S. presidency. And many laughed. In one of his campaigns a woman heckler said, “Lincoln, you will never be president because you are so ugly.” To which he replied, “Yes, Ma’am, but you know, God loves ugly people so much, he created so many of us.”

Presiding over a country tragically torn by a civil war, Lincoln wisely steered his nation, and won on the issue of ending slavery.

Tragically in 1865 bullets fired by a crazed actor, John Wilkes Booth, ended his life. At Lincoln’s death the assisting doctor solemnly said, “Now, he belongs to eternity.”

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