Gettysburg Address (slightly rewritten)
John Stapleton
Principal at Open Policy Ontario and Senior Research Associate with the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership
A very slight rewrite of the Gettysburg address by Abraham Lincoln could be a requiem for the nation his successors lead 153 years later:
'Twelve score 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 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 ideas and beliefs that separate us all so 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. These brave ideas and beliefs of liberty and equality for all that 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 stood for. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which those lofty principles 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 concepts we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these ideals 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.'
LINC PROGRAM COORDINATOR,
5 年Ideals are constantly buffeted but eloquent reminders help us to keep a grip on them as winds shift. Thanks, John for the worthy sampling. I remember you gave a valuable Friday workshop at WoodGreen Community Services.
RESEARCH/WRITING - Focus on issues concerning Seniors Advocacy and Environment
8 年Your Gettysburg address (slightly rewritten) makes me wonder how far we have come since the original and how cyclical our politics, no matter where one lives in North America. My hope is that the circle will eventually come round to 'the part in your address..."that we here highly resolve that these ideals shall not have died in vain --'.