On this Memorial Day, I wish that I could say how much I appreciate the sacrifice that so many have made so that I could live in this wonderful country. A sacrifice that I know that I have done nothing to deserve, and can do nothing to earn. But one that was made freely.
So on this day, remember those who gave all so that you and I might have the freedoms that we cherish so much. Hug a vet. Place flowers or a flag at a fallen hero's grave. Weep a little at what was given up on our account. Remember them.
And remember the words of a truely great man. One who also was humbled at the cost of freedom. But who would not let their sacrifice be wasted.
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 battle-field 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.
-Abraham Lincoln. Gettysburg, Pensylvania. November 19, 1863.
Posted by GEBIV at May 29, 2006 11:44 AM | TrackBack