The postage stamp picture above was on display at Arlington National Cemetery. The quote says:
“That government
of the people,
by the people,
for the people,
shall not perish
from the earth.”
-Abraham Lincoln
The quote comes from the Gettysburg Address which was given by Abraham Lincoln during a very dire time when civil war threatened to destroy the union. Today we don’t face civil war but I wonder if Lincoln wouldn’t be just as worried about the stability of the government as he was when those words were spoken.
As our national debt to gross national product continues to remain high with no decrease in sight I can’t help but wonder if history hasn’t repeated itself and the nation is in another precarious situation.
The nation has come a long way in the 147 years since these words were spoken which makes his concern even more important. If we slip from this precarious slope then the accomplishments and sacrifices of those before us will have been in vain. Our nation is a very small portion of the world’s population but we have weathered storms that larger nations haven’t overcome. Don’t agree with me? Read the constitution and the amendments to it (bill of rights) and decide for yourself.
“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.” -Abraham Lincoln