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Lincoln: The past and
the present
By Bob Rhoades
When I look back at the 4th of July and the celebration, I always think
of A. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. To me it says it
all. I wonder how many people actually think of what has happened
since 1776 and the 235 years since then.
I paraphrased the Address for 2011:
Eleven score and 7 years ago, our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men and women are created equal. Now we are
engaged in a number of battles around the globe and at home, testing
once again, whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure...
Over the years we have dedicated many hollowed grounds to hold the
remains of those who gave their lives so this nation might live.
It has been altogether fitting that we should do this.
And although we have dedicated, consecrated and hollowed those grounds,
we perhaps dishonor those brave men and women who actually consecrated
those grounds with their lives. The world has learned nothing
from their sacrifice and that of our allies. The world has noted
and remembered what they did, but aggressors continue to invade and
fight, many times not even knowing their own purpose...
So we must again dedicate ourselves, the living, to the unfinished work
which they who fought at Gettysburg, Iwo Jima, the Bulge, Korea, Saigon
and the Middle East, to complete their work. We absolutely must
resolve that they did not die in vain and that every American
understands and values that sacrifice and that this great nation, which
has withstood the test of time, under God, shall once again have a new
birth of freedom.
It is now a documented fact that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THIS EARTH. God
Bless America.
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