Going Against Public Opinion To Become Great by William

Going Against Public Opinion To Become Great by William - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

When you think of people who changed the world, you typically will think of someone who did so negatively. Hitler is a classic example. Today's society usually only focuses on the bad, so I'd like to take this opportunity to express my opinion on who I think is the greatest man who had ever lived. Abraham Lincoln.

The reason I would have dinner with Lincoln rather than anyone else is because he went against something that was never thought to be changed at the time, slavery. By creating the 13th ammendment, he freed all the slaves which turned out to be one of the biggest events in history.

Sure, everyone wouldn't pass up an opportunity to meet someone like Lincoln, but I have a different reasoning for my desire to meet him. The big question I would ask would be this:

"Mr. Lincoln. Obviously what you did turned out to be a great decision in our society. But I have something that's been on my mind, and only you yourself would be able to answer it. How did you guts to make the executive decision to free the slaves? You knew all these people were going to disagree with you. Actually, entire countries disagreed with you. You must have been hated for such a long time. It may have been why you got assassinated. You must of knew it would have been risky to do this, right? How hard was it to make that decision official?"

It just blows my mind when I really put it in perspective like that. But hey, I guess that's just what you got to do to become great. You need to take a stand in what you believe in and make the difference in the world. Lincoln was able to do that, and it should be fair to say that without him this world would have never been the same.