Two hundred and forty one years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
We are now celebrating that date with a National Holiday honoring that founding. But at this moment we are engaged in great divisive civil discourse, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure in peace and cooperation of all of its citizens. We are met in peace on this day as we celebrate our very existence.
But we must dedicate a portion of this day in memory of those that entered their final resting place prematurely that this Nation might live, or that their individual States can be free, or the individual nations of the original inhabitants can be independent. We must also remember our nations men at arms who traveled to foreign lands to advance the ideas of peace and individual determination and defy tyranny. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. These brave men, living or dead, despite their differences of ideas or ideology, have advanced our concepts of individual liberty around the world.
The world will little note our celebration of this date honoring our founding. But it can and should never forget the men who sacrificed there own lives in the fight for freedom. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they fought for and have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us from these honored dead - 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.
To that goal we must pledge to continue to promote peace and freedom around the world and peace here in our homeland by finding causes that unite us and try to work with others on the causes that divide us, that the whole world might someday be free, with the space for everyone to live their own lives without government interference and as best as they are able, with minimum dependency on our government.
Just some thoughts on how I believe Abraham Lincoln might rewrite the Gettysburg address if he were to write if on the 241 birthday of America.
May we all live free.
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