WHO WE ARE IS WHAT WE READ

Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on this day in 1863.

As he was following a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, Lincoln kept it short.

Afterwards, even Everett acknowledged that he could not "come as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes,"

but the newspapers of the day still managed to play politics.

Republican papers reported hearing a speech that had "the charm and power of the very highest eloquence" (Providence Journal),

that "will live among the annals of man" (Chicago Tribune).

 Democratic papers wished to "pass over the silly remarks of the President" (Harrisburg Patriot and Union),

for "the cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances" (Chicago Times).

Then, there is the LOST SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

On May 29, 1856 in Bloomington, Illinois, Lincoln so mesmerized reporters that all of them failed to write down the words that so moved them. 

It is thought that newspapers with opposing ideals refused to print it due to its anti-slavery sentiments.

With just a few sentences, Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address summed up American history and democratic ideals as well as giving a new motive for keeping up the fight,

so that those who fell at Gettysburg “will not have died in vain."

Lincoln’s speech was years ahead of its time, which is why it still resonates today, when audiences quickly tire or overlong oratories.

Today’s speeches are more likely to resemble Lincoln’s. The rise of social media has changed the way they are written and digested.

What we think will sometimes, if not all the time, influence how we view new information.

That is why we sometimes are skeptical when foreign ideas invade our minds.

Our thinking or current perception of things or an idea filters the new perception or information so that it fits the perception that our mind is willing to retain.

What do you think?

Do people truly read
what you write
or
who they are?