When I was twelve years old, I had to do a book report on a book of my choice. I found one about Abraham Lincoln. For my report, instead of writing it, I acted it. My mom video taped me on her camcorder. I made a top hat out of construction paper, wore my mom's long black coat, she took her eye liner and colored in a beard on my chin, and I stood on a stool. My dad introduced me, "And now, the honorable, President Abraham Lincoln!" My dad and sister clapped in the background (the camera always on me), and I said the Gettysburg Address. I think my dad still has that tape. Since then, Abraham Lincoln has fascinated me. He was a man who taught himself how to read by fire light, lived in a log cabin, became president of the United States in one of our countries most tumultuous eras of division, and saved the Union. It made me think about how our political leaders are having such a difficult time communicating and getting things done today. It also gives me hope because I remember my grandma saying that the United States is the only country who has had a civil war and still remained one country. I am not sure of other countries histories of civil wars, but it really is amazing that ours was truly, truly divided, and that we later remained the United States of America. Our history is inspiring. The Revolutionary War was full of farmers who fought back the English Army. There are many stories about the Civil War where brothers fought against each other; one for the North and one for the South. I can go on and on. I think what I am trying to say is that I hope people are not defining our country on the recent squabbles that our leaders in Washington are having. I hope that our country is defined by our history, and our ability to stand together as one in the face of tyrants. I hope we are defined by our courage.
This past Sunday was the 10th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. There are no words that I can express that can pin down how I feel. I can just say that it was a day which I reflected on my feelings of that day. Some of those feelings felt very fresh and recent. I understand that some people may not have wanted to watch the dedications and stories about it, but I found it therapeutic. I shed some tears and remembered how on that day, and the days followed, I would walk down the street and see strangers as my brothers and sisters. It is no secret that tragedy brings people together.
I watched several clips of leaders, past and present, giving talks of the innocent and courageous lives lost on that day: the people going to work at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and flight crews. The firefighters and policeman, the passengers on the planes... There are a few quotes that I think are worth sharing which were given during these dedications. Here they are:
Vice President Joe Biden told people gathered in Shanksville, Pennsylvania a quote which his mother said to him, "Courage lies in every heart. The expectation, Joey, is that one day it will be summoned." He said this in regards to the courageous people on Flight 93. He was talking about how ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
George W. Bush, too, was in Shanksville, and he recounted Abraham Lincoln's speech in Gettysburg. He also was at Ground Zero the next day with President Obama, and he read a letter that Lincoln wrote to a mother (Mrs. Bixby) who believed she lost five sons in the Civil War. I have included both documents below because I think they are both important for all of us to read.
The Gettysburg Address
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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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.
The Letter to Mrs. Bixby
Dear Madam,--
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
May we always remember that through our differences, we are all brothers and sisters...
Happy Tuesday to you and yours...
