Happy Bicentennials

There were two bi-centennials on one day this week. Feb. 12th was the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. It was also the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. Two men who were born worlds yet hours apart, but, whose works were both instigated by the basic truth that all men are created equal.

Darwin, whose family were ardent abolitionists on both sides, began work on his “Origin of the Species” to prove that something as superficial as skin color was not a factor of differentiation among members of the same species.

Lincoln, of course, effectively ended the practice of enslaving our fellow man, thus, laying the cornerstone of the foundation of all that we are today as a nation.

It is with these bi-centennials in mind that I read some history that I thought you might find interesting.

Elijah McCoy invented an automatic lubricator for oiling steam engines in 1872. If you weren’t using his lubricator…you weren’t using “The Real McCoy.” Garrett Morgan invented the electronic traffic signal, Otis Boykin invented electronic control devices for guided missiles, IBM computers, and the control unit for a pacemaker, George T. Sampson invented a clothes dryer that used heat from a stove in 1892, Lewis Howard Lattimer invented the carbon filament for light bulbs in 1881, John Love invented the pencil sharpener in 1897, L.P. Ray invented the dustpan, also in 1897…I guess to clean up all those shavings from the pencil sharpener. Joseph Lee invented a bread-making machine that mixed the ingredients and kneaded the dough in 1895….and these inventors and their brainchildren are just the tip of the iceberg.

While we’re on the subject of icebergs, did you know that Matthew Henson was an integral part of the first successful expedition to the North Pole? How about that Sarah Breedlove, who was known to the world as Madame C.J. Walker was the first female millionaire? She made all that money with her line of hair products. Dr. Ben Carson, a skilled neurosurgeon, was the first to separate conjoined twins. Bill Picket a renowned cowboy and rodeo performer was named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1971 and honored by the U.S. Postal service in a series of stamps as one of the twenty "Legends of the West"

These inventions and examples of historical achievement are, of course, just a few of the many achievements that I am prevented by virtue of space and time from bringing up, but there is a commonality to all of it.

Each and every one of the people named (and the plethora of others not named, but equally impressive) is……an American. This is American history. It wasn’t in the history books when I was in school, but, that was a long time ago. A time when credit wasn’t given where credit was due. An American History that was made possible by the foresight and, consequently, actions of two men who were born on the same day 200 years ago. One who knew that all humans were, inherently, the same and the other, who was able to end the deplorable practice of owning our fellow man. These two men paved the way to a society that can overlook the superficial differences of fellow Americans to be just that….fellow Americans. Just ask the most powerful man in the world today, the President of the United States of America. All politics aside, we have finally become the nation that our founders had in mind when they wrote: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Happy Birthday Abe & Chuck

THAT’S HOW I FEEL ………………… WHAT CAN I TELL YA’