My fellow Americans,
We are standing at the crossroads of what was and what will be. We must choose to move forward. We cannot allow ourselves to take even the smallest step backward. To do so would surely make a mockery of the principles upon which our country was founded.
On a battlefield at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln said:
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.
There is a small, but vocal group of narrow-minded people who claim to want to "restore America's greatness". But what they want to restore is an America that never was and must never become. An America that only allows the wealthy to have opportunities. An America that closes its borders, closes it doors and shuts out the rest of the world unless there is something we can take from those weaker than us.
That is not the America of the Declaration of Independence. That is not the America of the Constitution. That is not the America that President Abraham Lincoln and the Union soldiers gave their lives to defend and save.
Whatever rights, whatever freedoms we have, we owe, not to ourselves, but to the men and women who fought and often gave their lives to achieve. From The War of Independence to the Civil War to the fight for Women's voting rights to the fight for Civil Rights and two World Wars, people were willing to take a stand, to stand together, to do what had to be done, to even give their lives.
Isn't it time we honored their sacrifices? Isn't it time we rededicate ourselves to moving this country even one step closer to fulfilling the promises which began with the Declaration of Independence, were framed in the Constitution and preserved by the Union victory in the Civil War? Isn't it time that we, as a nation, learn that when any group is denied basic rights, we are all just a little less freer? That to deny anyone equality is to deny ourselves equality?
We cannot and must not allow this moment to pass us by as we stand and watch. Isn't it time?