Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was a complicated man.
We hear lots of caricatures of his viewpoints.
A recent Q & A in Time Magazine with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
gave, I think, a good nuanced picture of Lincoln's views.
Here Gates' statement:

"A fundamental part of Lincoln's moral compass was his opposition to slavery. But it took him a long time to embrace black people. We were raised with a fairy-tale representation that because he hated slavery, he loved the slaves. He didn't. He was a recovering racist. He used to use the N word. He told darky jokes. He resisted abolition as long as he could. But in the end, he was on an upward arc, one that was quite noble."

Gates got it right. Unfortunately, some people portray Lincoln only in his early days--when he held what we would regard as racist views. Or only his later anti-racist views. The picture is more complex.

Lincoln matured. Now there's something to emulate.