The day after this weekend our nation will once again celebrate the life and work of the man who did so much to further the great task of freedom and justice begun in the Civil War: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The following day the first African American president of the United States will be inaugurated. And then a few weeks later we’ll celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. This feels like an opportune time to think about Lincoln and why his story and words and accomplishments and failures still have such a powerful impact.