So I was out running errands today. And as I got into the car, the radio was on and the unmistakable harmonies of Aaron Copland's music were issuing forth. It took me a moment to place it... it was his "A Lincoln Portrait." As I pulled into a parking space at the post office, the narration began. And as I listened, I remembered anew the story of my country as recounted to me throughout all of my school years. I was fortunate that in the schools I attended, that story was told "warts and all." And still I grew into someone who admired and loved this nation despite its flaws; a love rooted in the promise that it held, and the strength and character of those who worked towards fulfillment of that promise. And the words of Lincoln rang out, carried on chords that could have come from Gabriel's own horn:
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." That is
what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this
congress and this administration will be remembered in
spite of ourselves. No personal significance or
insignificance can spare one or another of us. The
fiery trial through which we pass will light us down
in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.
We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility."
He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived
in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe
Lincoln said: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate
to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty
and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new,
so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall
ourselves and then we shall save our country."
When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall,
and this is what he said. He said: "It is the eternal struggle
between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world.
It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread,
and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes,
whether from the mouth of a king who seeks
to bestride the people of his own nation,
and live by the fruit of their labor,
or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving
another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."
Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a
melancholy man. But when he spoke of democracy, this is what he said.
He said: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.
This expresses my idea of democracy.
Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of these United States,
is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen.
For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he said.
He said: "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, and for the people
shall not perish from the earth."
I sat and listened. And I thought of that story from long ago. And of where we are, and what we are becoming. And I choked back tears.
https://youtu.be/K321bCwssN0