Way back on February twelfth, in eighteen hundred nine,
‘Twas Charles Darwin’s birthday, mom and baby doing fine.
Who knew how much this baby boy would shake up the whole world?
And this date would mean even more as our small planet whirled.

For over in America, another boy was born,
In a log cabin in Kentucky, that same winter morn.
We said, “Hello, Abe Lincoln,” he was also born that day,
One more whose contributions shaped the world we know today.

Charles Darwin published his first book in eighteen fifty nine.
Diversity from evolution, the first to opine.
Then, joined by Alfred Wallace, they both said species arose
Through natural selection, punching Scripture in the nose. (1)

Abe Lincoln became president in eighteen sixty one.
Abolished slavery, saved the union; when the war was won,
Though not accepted everywhere, a new morality
Expanded Jefferson’s first words on man’s equality.

First, Charles Darwin’s theory unified biology (2)
And Lincoln said our country must be free of slavery. (3)
A source of consternation: neither’s work is finished yet,
Stupidity and bigotry, both a persistent threat.

So, raise a glass to Chuck and Abe to toast their special day.
Pour scotch or bourbon, drink one down, make this a holiday!
Diversity, equality, the lessons these two taught,
And then, inclusion: why is there resistance to that thought?

(1)Contrast the creation stories in Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2.
(2)The idea that all living species started from a common ancestor some
3.8 billion years ago is the central organizing principle of the science of
biology. Darwin’s Origin of Species was published in 1859.
(3)Lincoln opposed slavery for a long time before the 13th Amendment
was ratified in December, 1865.