The Ides of April

There are times I sit in the car to listen to more even after reaching my destination. I love this show and am learning fascinating things with every episode. How little we were taught in school about Lincoln’s assassination and his assassin. I appreciate this opportunity to learn about a piece of history that I thought I knew.

It’s really a tired trope to call someone a “cult leader” just because you disagree with them. John Wilkes Booth is already the villain in this story, why embellish the facts to further vilify him? Also, Lincoln was a man and quite subject to fallibility which he displayed over and over again like the rest of us do. Intriguing I still haven’t heard of Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus nor his stated intention to never free the slaves upon his election to the presidency (maybe it comes later). Regurgitating the notion that the evil southerners only wanted war to keep slavery intact is intellectually dishonest quite frankly and belies a fundamental lack of understanding of the causes of the war. I get it though, this is to entertain not inform.

Knowing that Alec Baldwin killed a human being and got off scot free, I couldn’t listen to him any further. I kept thinking about the woman he killed, and the family she left behind.