An inauguration day noncandidate diary

We stand at the threshold of momentous events, no matter which of the possibilities occurs.  Obama wins big and Clinton capitulates? Certainly something no one of us has ever seen.  Clinton wins big and the contest continues?  No matter how that shakes out, it will be something to tell your grandkids about.

You may be moved to tear your hair or rend your garments.  It may be tempting to call down curses on your opponents.

But.  Today is traditionally the day in the United States when we inaugurated our President.  And on just such a day, in 1861, the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln spoke.

This is what he has to tell us, across the distance of almost a century and a half.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

No matter what happens tonight, we should remember that we are in this with all our hearts because we desperately want our nation once again to be touched by the better angels of our nature.

•  who shall appeal

  to those better angels?

  by kay dub on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 03:27:57 PM PDT

  •  I think...

    ...that with this short--but cogent--diary, you just did.

    by slksfca on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 04:12:37 PM PDT

•  Better angels

  "I forget to pray for the angels,
  And the angels forget to pray for us."

  Leonard Cohen, Marianne

  by Fabian on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 03:39:04 PM PDT