A strange night at the Lincoln Memorial…

The tourists had left for the night. The sun had gone down. And the Lincoln Memorial sat bathed in brilliant white flood lights.  On its steps sat two familiar figures.  A homeless man walking by looked at the crumpled Dollar in his hand and then back at one of the men sitting in front of him.  “Nah,” he said and threw the rest of his bottle into the trash.

Abe Lincoln and George Washington sat looking down the Mall toward the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol.  Both had concerned looks on their faces.

What was it that you always used to say Abe? “A divided house can’t what?”

“Stand,” Abe Lincoln said.  Washington stood up.  Lincoln laughed and said, “No, no. I meant “A divided house can not stand. Not for you to stand.”  Washington sat down, slightly embarrassed at his “blond” moment.

Lincoln had borrowed a copy of today’s Washington Post from the man sleeping on the bench. It was a hot, muggy summer’s night in D.C., so he didn’t think the homeless man would need it as a blanket.  George Washington did the Sudoku and laughed at Tom Toles’ editorial cartoon. “I miss Herblock,” Lincoln said. Herb Block was the famous, long-time editorial cartoonist for the Post. “But this Toles guy is pretty good, too.”

Both men read about the debt ceiling talks and had a grimace on their faces.  “These guys wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes at Valley Forge,” the father of our Country said with a sigh.  “This country would have had a British accent if they had been in charge. They can’t make the tough decisions.  They are too glued to their talking points. Too worried about 2012.  I bet they would have wondered why they couldn’t use their credit cards to order pizzas for the troops.  No one is willing to make sacrifices. Particularly political ones.”

Lincoln took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow. Wool suits and humidity didn’t mix.  He looked over his shoulder at Robert E. Lee’s old home, Arlington, at all the gravestones.  “Those men and women didn’t die so this great nation would go bankrupt. It seems to me that politics today is more about finding blame than it is solutions.”  Both men were appalled at the debt that had been run up over the past 20 years by the U.S. Government by both parties “For the people, by the people has turned into For the lobbyists, buy the people.” Lincoln growled.  Washington knew his old friend was in one of his moods.  When he got like this, they had to steer WAY clear of the Ford Theater.

Lincoln held up the story about the debt ceiling talks. “They’re talking at each other, not to each other.  I remember when that happened once. In 1861.  That didn’t turn out well.”

Washington patted his old friend’s sweat-soaked back and said, “we can only pray that the same Power that watched over this great country’s creation and during its most trying time will once again guide it through this crisis.”  Lincoln looked out at the Capitol Dome (which was completed during his term in office) and managed a smile.  “Washington sure is pretty at night.”

“Why thank you, Abe.”

“I was talking about the city, you egomaniac.”

Both men laughed when they wanted to cry.