Veteran’s Day has always been a day of pride for me. My father and uncles served in World War II, and others in the family served in the Korean War. There is a dark sadness about that time in their lives. They saw so much tragedy and loss. I am sure they often wondered if all the devastation and destruction was worth it. When those who served in the Vietnam War came home, they must have felt the same way when the public who should have praised them for their sacrifice, dishonored them. Today, when sports figures kneel during "The Star-Spangled Banner,” veterans must feel the futility of their service more intensely than anyone else. I cannot help but wonder what changed the hearts of the people against those who sacrificed so much. Have we seen so many football games, war pictures and unreal dramatic suffering on the media that we have ceased to feel gratitude or compassion? Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address pleads the question even today. How long can a free people remain free before they destroy themselves? Lincoln’s speech centuries ago is almost more applicable today than back then.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war.” We are engaged in wars of words and protests and violence that are all too common. Protesters have brought down governments and fallen prey to military law. In America, protesters scream they have been abused by the rich and powerful and scream for their fair share of the spoil. This war is not about equality, it is about supremacy. It is about getting something for nothing. It is about taking from the haves to give to the have-nots. It is about power and greed, not equal opportunity for all. Daily we meet “on the battlefield of that war.” Anchormen and women give a play-by-play of the action and the causalities. Some victims of that war die literal deaths, while some die losing their honor and dignity, groveling in the sewer of lies and political expediency. What is the war all about? We are “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
As in Lincoln’s time, the Constitution is at risk. There are those who consider abandoning it for another form of government as they claim the Constitution was written by men who lived over 200 years ago and knew nothing of modern society. Those who want to abandon the Constitution are not familiar with the archetype of men and women. The toys and the weapons may change, but the basic inner workings of people stay the same. Men and women are motivated by power, position and money and will overstep their bounds if not checked. The Constitution is designed to self govern, making people accountable for their actions.
On the other side of the spectrum, people want to return letter for letter to the original document. They would even abandon some amendments. These people trust the Founding Fathers and trust the archetype of man. They want the autonomy to do what they do best – create and work for the betterment of humankind. Now they must be engaged in a war for their very lives. They must fight day by day to preserve what the Founding Fathers created. They are angry at the political mumbo jumbo and the executive pen that deletes the relevance of the Constitution. We “are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
The Gettysburg Address was not a political speech, though it had a hand in getting Lincoln reelected. He came to dedicate a cemetery of soldiers who died on a battlefield. Parents and friends of the lost ones were in the crowd. His heart was swollen with sorrow for the lost ones, and he recognized he could say nothing that would bring comfort to these grieving people. Their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers were cold in the silent graves marked by white crosses.
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 war was not over then, and it is not over today. Lincoln knew that if the nation was going to survive, the rebellious states must come under the rule of the Constitution. He knew many more young men would die, and the country would be ripped and torn in the aftermath of war. Famine and hardship would result, but he knew what we must accomplish. He could not let the nation be split into separate nations. Lincoln understood the archetype of man. He knew the insatiable quest for power that lives in the heart of man. He knew that border war would follow border war. Peace could only come when the country was united.
Lincoln expected to be forgotten. He expected to fade into history as other men, and he would have if he had not pulled the nation together. Lincoln’s concern was not for his own fame or power. He wanted those young men to be remembered. They had given all to preserve freedom and liberty for their families. Lincoln did not want them to have died in vain. He wanted us to honor them as we need to remember and honor the sacrifice of our soldiers today.
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.
When I think of all those who died in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, I am filled with sorrow. But when I think of all the young soldiers who died in World War I and World War II, the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan, I am literally overwhelmed. We have so many more lives to remember and honor than Lincoln could even imagine. We must not let the number diminish the sacrifice of the one. Each soldier had a family, a mother and father who would never be the same. Some had wives and brother and sisters whose lives would forever be altered. Those of today who kneel before the flag might think they are making a statement of disgust for present policies, but they are by default dishonoring those who gave their lives to keep that flag standing on the battlefield.
Lincoln said, “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
What a shame it would be to give these lives and the precious gift of freedom away because we want someone else to pay our bills. We want someone else to solve our problems. It would be a travesty to adopt the very tyranny that our founders fought against. We do not need a dictator. We need the Constitution. Self-reliance and self-governance are the only form of government that has created long-term peace and has allowed people to create prosperity beyond anyone’s imagination. We cannot stomp on the graves of those who gave their last breath to buy that freedom and prosperity in exchange for a cell in the prison of history.
We are Americans with a tenacious heritage of independence and fortitude. We have the best blood of the American dream running in our veins. We must resolve no matter what it takes and say with Lincoln, “… 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.”
