Conservative Eye for the Lincoln Guy

This story, to me, seems a little silly:

The National Park Service sought out footage of "conservative - right-wing demonstrations" to revise the video shown to visitors at the Lincoln Memorial after being pressured by conservatives who complained the display implied Abraham Lincoln supported abortion, homosexuality and liberal causes.

Park Service documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show officials purchased video of President Bush, pro-gun advocates and pro-Iraq war rallies and also considered removing images of Democratic former President Clinton at the memorial.

Park Service officials said they wanted the video to be politically balanced but refused to provide a copy of the revision to The Associated Press, saying it was still being evaluated.

The current eight-minute video, which has been viewed by millions of visitors since 1994, was created by the Park Service in an unprecedented collaboration with high school students around the country. It shows Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, presidential visits and glimpses of dozens of protest marches at the memorial on the Mall.

Students and teachers who collected money to pay for the project and worked with the Park Service a decade ago said they were surprised by the effort to give their display a more conservative touch.

"The Lincoln Memorial is America's soapbox," said Ilene M. Morgan of Los Angeles, who as a Scottsdale, Ariz., high school student helped organize the project. "This was where people have stood to get America's attention. That's what we were trying to capture."

I'm all for fair and balanced presentations, but I don't think anyone - expect maybe this guy - would think that Lincoln would have supported the views of all the crazy demonstrators who have marched at Lincoln's feet:

"The video gave the impression that Lincoln would have supported abortion and homosexuality," said the Web site of Rev. Louis Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition. It cited footage showing events at the memorial staged by abortion and gay rights supporters and war opponents but no similar footage from Christian and conservative interests.

"Absent from the video were any Promise Keepers marches or Marches for Jesus rallies at the capital. The video was totally skewed to present only a leftist viewpoint," the Web site said. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of Sheldon's group, said Thursday, "It's clear the department knows there's a problem and we don't know why they haven't dealt with it in a timely manner."

I'm sorry, but there are some things that I just have a hard time getting outraged about, and this is one of them. Only a simple-minded fool would draw the conclusion that everyone viewing the current film would assume that Lincoln was pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality just because those demonstrations are shown in the film. If you are any kind of a student of history, you know that Washington is always the scene of the biggest demonstrations, whether liberal or conservative, and inanimate statues generally don't express their opinions one way or the other.

Of course, the lefties are getting the vapors over this as well:

Documents about the revision were released to two liberal advocacy groups, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the People For the American Way Foundation, after they sued under the Freedom of Information Act. Major portions of the 1,500 pages, provided to AP by the groups, were blacked out on grounds they included pre-decision information that did not have to be disclosed.

"This is yet another example of the Bush administration's efforts to turn the federal government into a right-wing propaganda machine," PFAW president Ralph G. Neas said. "Now they're trying to rewrite history on the basis of ideology and abuse FOIA to conceal the evidence."

I really think this is a lot of nonsense. I'll be visiting the Lincoln Memorial in about 10 days, and I'll check out the video and let you know what I think.