Lincoln: Gay. Depressed. Spotted at a 7-Eleven in Nashville.
Feb 7 2006 | Comment 1
We just can’t stop digging up dirt about our favorite Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. (Favorite. Republican. Those words don’t generally work together for me.) My hometown Daily News, in danger of going out of business, has happened upon a solution for circulation woes: Write sexy gossip about ex-presidents. (It’d be a hell of a lot sexier if it were about Clinton, though.)
The below article, while well-intentioned, features some of the most labored transitions in all of Journalismville. But it does have an inspiring message: If you’re depressed today, don’t worry about it. Tomorrow you might abolish slavery!
Lincoln: Role model for depression [Philadelphia Daily News]
liz | 12:59 PM | Uncategorized
Interesting editorial. It’s clearly based on this piece from the Atlantic Monthly, which brought up a lot of questions: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200510/lincolns-clinical-depression
I think it’s a little unfair to try to make a connection between Lincoln’s experience more than 100 years ago and the way we view depression now. I’m not saying he wasn’t clinically depressed–he clearly was–but society looked upon mental illnesses much different than it does now. Plus, that age of risk (26) meant something a great deal different now than it did then, when people weren’t expected to live that long.
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