“The date was February 12, 1976. A strange but significant announcement was made public. For the first time, the world was told the contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated... At the risk of sounding cheesy, Abe Lincoln still speaks to us from his pockets. Inside the famous President’s pockets were two pairs of glasses, an ivory pocketknife, and a large white Irish linen handkerchief, slightly used, with ‘A. Lincoln’ embroidered in red. But one other significant thing was found carefully tucked in his pocket that night. It was a newspaper article on his presidency written by a guy named John Bright. The article had obviously been carefully cut and folded, as though Lincoln had taken precise measures to make sure he would be able to refer to it often. So what’s so unusual about that article? First, you need to know something about the political tenor at that time to understand. During the period surrounding Lincoln’s assassination, the press had become relentlessly negative and brutal on the President and his leadership. Newspaper after newspaper talked about the poor job he was doing, his lack of leadership skill, and the negative impact of his administration. But, oddly enough, Lincoln was smart enough not to keep any of those newspaper articles in his pockets for frequent review. The article by John Bright was one of the few highly favorable newspaper articles published about Lincoln during this entire time period. Yet, wisely enough, this one was the only article Lincoln chose to keep close to him. I bet when things got tough, he pulled it out of his pocket and secretly glanced at the positive words again.
What kind of newspaper articles are you carrying in the pockets of your mind?”
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