Supposing there is an afterlife

[loveissucide]

What three people within it do you want to meet and why?
Abraham Lincoln-For doing what he saw as being right no matter what the prevailing opinion, putting millions of lives at risk for a cause they had mixed feelings about, for emancipation purely on moral grounds despite there being no idea of the consequences of it. I'd wanna talk to him about morals and ethics

Martin Luther-For putting the lives of himself and all around him at risk by criticising the most powerful organisation on earth, for standing firm on his principles no matter what, and to ask him how he feels about the fact he plunged Europe into chaos simply by doing the right thing.

Elvis Presley- How must it be to revolutionise the world accidentaly, and be acclaimed as a genius despite only being yourself, and how it feels to be so betrayed by those around you and to know you squandered so much potential.

[OceanAndSilence]

beethoven - come on. you should know why.

john lennon - **** YOU, dying young

god - if there's an afterlife, there's a god. i could learn anything.

[bungalow]

You think the emancipation of slaves in the south was based purely on moral grounds?

[loveissucide]

Originally Posted by bungalow

You think the emancipation of slaves in the south was based purely on moral grounds?

It certainly wasn't socially or economically viable, as seen by the disaster of Reconstruction and failure of the "40-Acres and a mule" proposition.

[bungalow]

He was a politician, it was a political decision. Lincoln needed popular support for the war and so he gave it a moral impetus. He was just as much a racist and believer that blacks were an inferior race as anyone else at the time.

[loveissucide]

Originally Posted by bungalow

He was a politician, it was a political decision. Lincoln needed popular support for the war and so he gave it a moral impetus. He was just as much a racist and believer that blacks were an inferior race as anyone else at the time.

Only a racist by our standards. By the standards of his time, such as those of Stephen Douglas in the 1858 debates on slavery, he was actually one of the more enlightened. What must be remembered is that the idea of different races living amongst each other in a state of equality was an unknown concept. His use of racial slurs and confusion as to how to carry out Reconstruction are the failure of 19th Century Society, not just him.

[Guybrush]

I'd like to meet people like Charles Darwin, Galileo Galilei and Leonardo DaVinci. These are all people I greatly admire. I think I've been day-dreaming about meeting Leonardo since I was a kid. Of course I'd love to tell them how right they were and teach them a little something as well as in my imagination, they're always quite inquisitive and interested in what we have discovered in modern times.

These meetings and dialogues are probably better in my imagination than they would be for real could I ever actually meet them, but hey - they're my fantasies.

[duga]

Originally Posted by loveissucide

Only a racist by our standards. By the standards of his time, such as those of Stephen Douglas in the 1858 debates on slavery, he was actually one of the more enlightened. What must be remembered is that the idea of different races living amongst each other in a state of equality was an unknown concept. His use of racial slurs and confusion as to how to carry out Reconstruction are the failure of 19th Century Society, not just him.

though the reconstruction was hard, lincoln was not trying to think that far ahead in terms of freeing the slaves. he freed them simply to preserve the union and end the war.

i quote lincoln..."My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

but as far as being a great president...yes he was truly one of the best. he saved the union...did end up freeing the slaves...and was a brilliant political mind.

i would want to meet:

jfk - he is just one of my favorite historical figures and i would want to know what he knew about what was really going on in the government those days.

mozart - so i can get his opinion on the direction of popular music.

god, also - yeah you can pretty much know anything with this guy...assuming we are going with the christian version of the afterlife.

[right-track]

Originally Posted by tore

I'd like to meet people like Charles Darwin, Galileo Galilei and Leonardo DaVinci. These are all people I greatly admire. I think I've been day-dreaming about meeting Leonardo since I was a kid. Of course I'd love to tell them how right they were and teach them a little something as well as in my imagination, they're always quite inquisitive and interested in what we have discovered in modern times.

These meetings and dialogues are probably better in my imagination than they would be for real could I ever actually meet them, but hey - they're my fantasies.

Leonardo DaVinci would be one of the first people I'd make a b-line for, along with Alexander the Great and George Best.

[loveissucide]

jfk - he is just one of my favorite historical figures and i would want to know what he knew about what was really going on in the government those days.

But he was a crook, and possibly the worst US President.Every criticism of the Bush adminstration was equally applicable to Kennedy/Johnson.Doubtless he would approve.