I think is a time to pause and remember not only what America is about, but one of the men of principle, character and courage who made it great. "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." Donald Trump is the antithesis of such men and women.
Nit sure we needed Trump in there… According to Shelby Foote. When he left the stage he got a tepid response and thought it wasn’t received well. Funny how history takes care of that which is truly important.
I agree the Gettysburg Address can speak for itself. It’s a fine topic and a fine read. No reason to bring Trump into everything.
Invaluable read on the 272 words that changed America from a Roman model to the Greek polis model. Relevant in that we are again testing whether government of the people, by the people, and for the people can long endure, at least here. We showed the world, others followed, showing it possible, even superior. Now we may show that democracy cannot be maintained.
That was the entire point of the post - not only to suggest we are again in perilous times, but that Trump and his MAGA flock (such as those who found my post "funny") are the peril.
Ronald C. White makes a compelling case that the Second Inaugural is 16’s greatest oratory, especially its view of theodicy. There is a shorter version of the same sentiment that I would submit it more applicable to our current danger. Most of our problems today are derived from a faction of the American polity that believes they alone know Divine will and represent it in American governance, and are agents of Divine wrath, using the tools of the United States government.
