Having spent the last few weeks engaged in the fight to make health care a reality for each and every American my husband and I have found ourselves participating in ways we have not participated since we were young and idealistic and wide eyed. We have been inspired by the tireless work of people like nyceve and countless Kossacks who have devoted their time and energy to this cause. It has been contentious, aggravating and at times despairing. But we have become involved again and it has proven to be exhilarating and empowering.
My husband is by nature a quiet and private man, he taught in the public school system for thirty one years, and in his retirement, he prefers the solitude of our garden and home to the outside world. But that has changed, for now, and today he awoke and wrote a letter to our local newspaper, after reading it I thought it was something I'd like to share.
Last fall, standing on the hallowed ground of the Gettysburg National Cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered his monumental address in 1863 I was profoundly reminded of the social sacrifices made by the heroic dead. After that pivotal struggle to move democracy forward Lincoln resolved that,"...these dead shall not have died in vain." Lincoln's detractors saw this speech as an "odious abolition doctrine". His presidency was stormy; yet he, like our founding fathers had the courage to promote a nation based on progressive principles that valued the evolution of individual equality. From Jefferson-to Lincoln-to Martin Luther King Jr., our history has honored those whose lives have been sacrificed, not for merecenary profiteering and self-preservation, but to be "our brothers keeper" on the highest spiritual plane. As the whole succeeds so will the few.
There were fifty thousand casualties in three days at Gettysburg, but in it's horrible aftermath Lincoln knew that the business of the American dream was "unfinished work". Today's issues once again test the mettle of our American character. After standing at Gettysburg last September I felt the groundswell of the nation's past rise. Lincoln once said, "with malice toward none, with charity for all: with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right let us strive to finish the work we are in." Today's health care question resonates with reminders of yesterday's civil rights issues.
What will your role be in shaping our American ideal toward equality?
Let us remember to honor those who have gone before us, those who will go after us and those who are with us now. Let us claim the higher ground and know that we are not fighting just to change statistics or minds, we are fighting to change the very soul and heart of our country. This will not end with the passage of a bill, it will be an ongoing struggle, but let us resolve to continue to pursue the higher ground of making health care for all Americans a RIGHT.