My wife Kathleen and I visited the amazing exhibit on President Abraham Lincoln at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here in California this weekend. Done in partnership with Dreamworks Studios, it was an incredibly unique and eclectic collection of Lincoln memorabilia from numerous private collections. During the tour, I was reading one of Lincoln’s personal letters with a group of young men in their twenties. After reading Lincoln’s letter this is exactly what one of those young men said:
“Like why don’t people speak or write like this anymore? LIke Lincoln was amazing, and like so inspiring! Today, like where are the like inspiring speeches from politicians and other like leaders? I just don’t understand the problem. It’s like people can’t even speak well anymore. People from that era like were brilliant writers and could like make such inspiring speeches. I just don’t know what like happened.”
His friends all agreed. That era was like over.
I had to go sit down.