Lincoln Legacy

Two centuries and fifty years ago our founders brought into this world, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. Now we are engaged in a dubious foreign war, testing whether this nation or any nation allied with us, and so dedicated, can proclaim itself the bully of the world. We now report upon an aggressive, ill-conceived, illegal war in which 127, or more, of our American soldiers have been laid upon the altar of modern warfare. It is altogether appropriate that we acknowledge their brave sacrifice, although it is also appropriate that we question the unauthorized deployment of our soldiers by a rogue president who deploys our officers, our soldiers, our ships, our aircraft and our defensive resources without any Constitutionally-mandated declaration of war from Congress. But in a realistic sense, we find ourselves unable to adequately appreciate or consecrate their sacrifice in the Persian gulf. The brave men, living and dead, who answered their duty call, have consecrated our American legacy, our struggle to protect and defend the freedom and dignity of all men and women who live and breathe and live their lives in this fallen world.

Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg battlefield, 161 years ago.The world will sometimes note, and maybe even remember, what we Americans try to do over there. . . over there, or anywhere we go in the world while trying to liberate oppressed people, or to impose our way of life on foreign nations that are motivated by religions and ancient customs that we do not understand. The challenge is for us, the living citizens of the earth, to be dedicated to the unfinished work of peace and safety - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion - that we highly resolve that those dead shall not have died in vain, and that our nation, United States of America, shall adapt a new awareness. . . in the fog of a presumptuous president's unauthorized actions. . . and that our governance by the people, through our Senators and our Representatives, shall not perish from our nation's governance. Glass half-Full