<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-05-30

On Memorial Day

This is one of those days that I feel so much the smaller man for never having served in the uniform of this country. And, as much as I wish I had something smart, or clever, or poignant to say to honor the victorious dead, I've learned to let my betters do the speaking when they can.


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 the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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 so nobly advanced. It is 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 the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
As much as Lincoln could not consecrate that ground, neither can we properly express our gratitude to all the men and women who have fought and died under the Flag for the last 230 years. But know that your brothers and sisters in arms, who fight and die this day, are in our thoughts and prayers as much as you were in your day. Godspeed.
Posted by: Michael / 5/30/2006 12:25:00 AM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?