any nation
so conceived, so dedicated,
can it long endure?
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on.
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 shall have a new birth of freedom;
and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
I never felt these words to be so much more a warning than words of encouragement.
Was it all false?
Was it always a hypocrisy?
The slave owners who wrote out that all men were created equal?
People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises.
At least that is what that feller Lenin said.
Today is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.
It was on November 19, 1863 that Mr. Lincoln said those words in closing to his remarks dedicating a cemetary.
He opened his remarks saying,
… 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.
So conceived and so dedicated …
When I was a kid I read those words not as SO FROM THE FACT but as SO MUCH …
Those words used to matter.
Liberty and created equal.
We shall see, once again, if they can long endure.
No Haiku For You 