The Podcast “Letters from an American” last night dealt with Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Heather Cox Richardson read parts of the work plus some commentary. I went out and googled Lincoln’s famous words and thought what I found on my search worth sharing. I’m not sure if this is the entire address. I’m thinking it’s not; however, you’ll get the essence.  

Delivered at Gettysburg, Pa on November 19, 1863. 

“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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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 were conceived upon a new notion that we, the people, all people were created equal. That’s how come we had the civil war. Some white folks in the south wanted to squash the rights and liberties of black folks. Black, white, women, men, gay, lesbian, children, seniors, Hispanics, Moslems, Jewish, Chinese, African, however you came to our shores, we were created equal.  

I like to think our race is human. 

As humans, we have the obligation to love one another; to speak peace; to be kind; to treat each other with respect; and to value each person. We are the people that President Lincon was talking about! We are the lovers, doers, changers, and the creators. We are the voices of peace, kindness, liberty and justice for all.  

Next year will be the 250th birthday of our country-the 150th birthday of Colorado; the 100th birthday of the Englewood lion’s Club; and my 50th anniversary from graduating from William Woods University in Fulton, MO. Let’s do Lincoln and ourselves proud. Let’s put Lincoln’s words on our walls, wear badges of honor on our sleeves, and walk tall and proud. We are Americans of the people, by the people, and for the people. Let’s go out and change the way we see and change the way we live.