Memorial Day
On Memorial Day we honor men and women who have given their lives in the service of country. We raise our nation's flag to half staff until noon and then lift it to the top for the rest of the day. We acknowledge feelings of sorrow and loss in the morning but remind ourselves of the proud privilege of freedom as we rejoice through the day. As families we may make an early trip to the cemetery before moving on to picnics, barbecues, and play. We are free to recreate because of soldiers who lived and died to preserve a way of life that allows us to pursue happiness without undue restraint from governmental power.
But do we not err if we conclude that government is our enemy? Consider Lincoln's advice and admonition given over 150 years ago when the question of this country's government truly hung in the balance. His words convey the heartache from the horrors of war and the conviction to see the value in the fight for right.
"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."
We continue to engage in dangerous battles, both military and philosophical, that test how long this nation can endure. May we resolve to act as citizens, not mere residents; governors, not merely governed; and preserve fundamental principles of liberty and equality for all, and thus ensure that not one valiant soldier would have died in vain.
But do we not err if we conclude that government is our enemy? Consider Lincoln's advice and admonition given over 150 years ago when the question of this country's government truly hung in the balance. His words convey the heartache from the horrors of war and the conviction to see the value in the fight for right.
"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."
We continue to engage in dangerous battles, both military and philosophical, that test how long this nation can endure. May we resolve to act as citizens, not mere residents; governors, not merely governed; and preserve fundamental principles of liberty and equality for all, and thus ensure that not one valiant soldier would have died in vain.
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