By Edward Epstein
Washington, D.C.
Nov. 8. 2021
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently led a delegation of state officials to Great Britain to attend the global warming summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Along the way, the governor (in the center of the photo at left) led other state officials to visit the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Parliament Square in London. On the left in the photo is Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon and on the right is House Speaker Chris Welch.
All three are Democrats, but in Illinois Lincoln is genuinely bipartisan.
Lincoln is the sole American among the 12 statues in the historic square. Other notables include Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
If the statue of Lincoln, which was dedicated in London in 1920, looks familiar, that's because it is a replica of the Lincoln statue in Lincoln Park in Chicago done by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The London statue in London was originally supposed to be unveiled in 1914, but World Ear I intervened.