Concerned about the "decline in patriotic feeling and civic engagement" in present day America, editors Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass and Diana Schaub have compiled a thought-provoking anthology entitled What so Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song.  It is a particularly timely item. If nothing else, I have to thank the 44th President because without his total disregard for the United States Constitution, I would never have begun the exhilarating process of becoming a more informed American.  Thus, I came across the words of a true leader -- President Abraham Lincoln. On January 27, 1838 in an address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, a young politician by the name of Abraham Lincoln expressed his concern that "Americans were increasingly inclined to take the law into their own hands" and were "substituting vigilante justice for the justice of the law."  Entitled "The Perpetuation of...(Read Full Article)