Most people would agree that the Gettysburg address was one of the most powerful and memorable speeches ever made by a government leader. The speech was made on Thursday, November 19, 1863 with little preparation at the dedication of a portion of the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania battlefield as a resting place for all those who had fought and died there.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States spoke words that followed the actions of the Battle of Gettysburg. Loved and respected by some and reviled by others, the President steadfastly set the stage for the war that took more lives of US citizens than any conflict since. The population of the US during the Civil War amounted to about 30 million citizens. Records show that about 620,000 men lost their lives during this devastating conflict.
Although the exact text of the Gettysburg Address varies in some details from different people who reported these famous words, following is one version of that time-honored salutation:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 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.”
Our nation today is quite a different country than President Lincoln visualized. The more than 4,000 men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in Iraq may have died in vain. By announcing our plans for withdrawal from Iraq months in advance, we alerted our adversaries so they could prepare strategies to undermine the peace for which so many of our people had died.
Our nation no longer resembles the government that Lincoln referred to as ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’ We are a nation of political elites that cleverly create and operate schemes designed to demean the other party and their candidates. We are a nation of political hacks who pander to their minions, their sychophants, their bundlers that exchange votes and money for favors.
We are a nation being run by people with theories but little practical knowldege and leaders that have the mistaken and arrogant belief that they are better prepared to chart a course through the choppy waters of international affairs than seasoned veteran decision makers. Our government is being run not by honorable statesmen and women but by opportunistic equivocators who take the easy road to fame and fortune through taxpayer pocketbooks.
Our leaders are operating under the illusion that words and promises are the equivalent of actions and results. The White House JV team with its raw recruits and fledgling coach are making errors and excuses while fumbling the ball. Team Obama is now in the 4th Quarter. Let’s hope too much damage isn’t done before real leadership retakes the field.
– Dick Baynton
