"In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg Address, written in Lincoln's own hand.
I linger on these few words that have helped define our American experiment: "a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Through the lines of weariness etched in his face, we know Lincoln grasped, perhaps more than anyone, the burdens required to give these words meaning. He knew that even a self evident truth was not self executing; that blood drawn by the lash was an affront to our ideals; that blood drawn by the sword was in painful service to those same ideals.
He understood as well that our humble efforts, our individual ambitions, are ultimately not what matter; rather, it is through the accumulated toil and sacrifice of ordinary men and women -- those like the soldiers who consecrated that battlefield -- that this country is built, and freedom preserved. This quintessentially self made man, fierce in his belief in honest work and the striving spirit at the heart of America, believed that it falls to each generation, collectively, to share in that toil and sacrifice.
Through cold war and world war, through industrial revolutions and technological transformations, through movements for civil rights and women's rights and workers rights and gay rights, we have. At times, social and economic change have strained our union. But Lincoln's words give us confidence that whatever trials avail us, this nation and the freedom we cherish can, and shall, prevail."
7 comments:
It is getting so humdrum. Really..
What is "humdrum" about an eloquent tribute to President Lincoln by President Obama?
Are we going to give into cynicism on EVERYTHING? Even a touching remembrance?
No, the incessant BS back and forth Shaw, it is effing humdrum.
I simply am calling it what it is. Fell free to disagree.
Depressing realty. But, I guess there is more who find it enjoyable than depressing.
And why not, cynicism is the rule of the day is it not?
Ambivalent.
Maybe you meant your comment for a different post.
If you go back and read this one, there is nothing in it except Mr. Obama's eloquent tribute to the Gettysburg address.
If you find that "incessant BS," I'm sorry.
But there is absolutely nothing but a heart-felt response to one of this country's greatest speeches.
Yeah, probably the prior one.
It's probably bloggers fault.
Cynicism?
Maybe that is the result of your own failed search for a utopian government. There is no such thing, and not a surprise that when learning that, you fall into cynicism.
Lincoln is a perfect example of a leader who rose above the cynics of his time, to create a better country.
Being the barbarians that we are, it took mass death to force that change. History and hindsight proves Lincoln correct, and we are a better country for it.
The Civil War should have also settled the question of State's right, but present day Republicans, Libertarians, Randians, Independents, and others want to re-fight that certain conclusion. So history will repeat itself, because we do not learn from our past mistakes.
Anonymous, Whateva...
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