I’m writing this on November 19th — the date in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and spoke the words that would not only inspire a nation at war with itself, but would echo through the years to inspire future generations of Americans, both at war and in times of peace.

Now, 161 years later, our country is facing increasing external threats from foreign enemies, as well as internal changes that threaten our very ability to protect ourselves from those enemies. The world of 2024 is vastly different from Lincoln’s: our enemies are closer, in terms of travel time; and our weaponry is no longer limited to the musket and the cannon.

What our country needs, now more than ever before, is unity. What we have instead, and are facing to an even greater extent in the immediate future, is divisiveness of a magnitude not seen since Lincoln’s time. And we need a government that will stop fomenting anger and hatred, and instead concentrate on standing up to external foes . . . rather than pandering to them for personal advantage.

So, on this anniversary — and just a week after our Veterans Day remembrance — I thought it would be appropriate to repeat a portion of Lincoln’s address to the troops at Gettysburg . . . lest we forget:

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

“. . . of the people, by the people, for the people . . .”

As my grandmother used to say (and as I have quoted many times in the past): From his mouth to God’s ears.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/20/24