The power to forgive

It's Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and if you grew up in Decatur, Illinois, you know that it's a day that school children learn of his many accomplishments. Yet of all the many stories I've learned about him in my formative years in the Land of Lincoln, the one I admired the most was his ability to forgive.

In all of the books I read on his life, I found Lincoln's willingness to quickly rebuild the South after the Civil War as one of the important lessons I learned as a child. Had Lincoln lived through his second term of his office, I believe he would have led political factions to help overcome the animosity at the end of the conflict.

As the war ended, Lincoln proposed a 10-percent plan where a state would be readmitted to the Union if that percentage of those who voted in the 1860 election would reaffirm their oath of allegiance to the U.S. government The radical elements of his party wanted a 50-percent plan but Lincoln vetoed their efforts. When John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, that faction of Congress pushed through their plan with the ineffectual Andrew Johnson.

Our elected officials today can take a lesson from Lincoln about the value of forgiveness. Here's hoping they can spend his birthday learning this simple lesson from one of our greatest presidents.