Karen Bitz McIntyre, Editor06.08.11
There are nornwords that can sum up the horror that has overtaken our lives after the deadly attacks on New York City andrnWashington, D.C. The most fitting comment I heard was onrnthe day of the attack, when New York's mayor, RudolphrnGiuliani, was asked for an approximate body count. The mayor replied, "I don't think we want to speculate aboutrnthat" it will be more than any of us can bear. "It is more than any of us can bear."
During the Civil War, dedicating a cemetery on the battlefieldrnwhere one of the bloodiest events in American history took place,rnPresident Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. On the nightrnof September 11, I found myself reading deeply reading his words, as I tried to understand what it is to be an American. Irnenclose it here, because I hope some of you will do the same. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on thisrncontinent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to thernproposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether thatrnnation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can longrnendure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have comernto dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those whornhere gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fittingrnand proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate,rnwe cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living andrndead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poorrnpower to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,rnwhat we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.rnIt is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinishedrnwork which they who fought here have thus far so noblyrnadvanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great taskrnremaining before us hat from these honored dead we takernincreased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last fullrnmeasure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these deadrnshall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shallrnhave a new birth of freedom and that government of the people,rnby the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. God bless America,
During the Civil War, dedicating a cemetery on the battlefieldrnwhere one of the bloodiest events in American history took place,rnPresident Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. On the nightrnof September 11, I found myself reading deeply reading his words, as I tried to understand what it is to be an American. Irnenclose it here, because I hope some of you will do the same. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on thisrncontinent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to thernproposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether thatrnnation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can longrnendure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have comernto dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those whornhere gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fittingrnand proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate,rnwe cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living andrndead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poorrnpower to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,rnwhat we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.rnIt is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinishedrnwork which they who fought here have thus far so noblyrnadvanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great taskrnremaining before us hat from these honored dead we takernincreased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last fullrnmeasure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these deadrnshall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shallrnhave a new birth of freedom and that government of the people,rnby the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. God bless America,