By Carol Lucas
As we move toward July 4 and the celebration of our country, there is so much to be recognized about where we were, where we are, and where we appear to be going. You, dear reader, will be deluged with television programs, written treatises, and personal interaction with friends as to what this date means and how it should be celebrated.
You will attend cook-outs, family gatherings, and perhaps live shows that focus on our 250th birthday. And for those adventuresome ones (myself excluded because I wear hearing aids) without dogs, your day’s end will include fireworks.
Fast forward. I have chosen to address an historical event that occurred more than 80 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address.
Yes, I am all about celebrating our independence from England. However, when I think of that time period and the fact that we found ourselves then, much as we are today, my concerns overtake my joy of celebration, not that I won’t indulge in the usual picnic fare.
Let me begin with a little bit of history, my own. I grew up in Pennsylvania during the 40s. We were emerging from World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While my parents never spoke about their fear, I have to think they had every bit of the concern about what the world was coming to as I have today.
My dad was a history buff, so a trip to Gettysburg was a must. I can recall grousing, as only a 10-year-old can, about my Dad’s stopping to read so many of the tombstones. My take was that it was just another cemetery, nothing special. It was only when I studied American history in greater depth that I learned how limited a 10-year-old can be in her world view.
What brought me to the computer to write about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? The news was on my TV, commonplace for me as I admit a bit of addiction to the world news. For no apparent reason, I thought of the fact that in 6th Grade, we were required to memorize this now-famous speech by President Lincoln.
Perhaps I had been ruminating about this man, given the whole reflecting pool debacle. I cannot say for sure what induced this thought, but there I was saying, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated can long endure.”
Believe me, folks, I just typed that without looking at the speech itself. Furthermore, consider that I can’t remember what I had for lunch, and it’s almost three o’clock in the afternoon as I sit here.
I have my 6th Grade teacher, Miss Grace Shaffer, to thank for this.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war.”
Today the fighting is mostly verbal although when we consider the lives lost on Jan. 6, as well as those lost due to all that ICE has perpetrated, the aspects of fighting and killing certainly come into play. The division of our people is clear cut, perhaps the worst since the 1860s. This should sadden everyone.
“Testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated …”
Our country was conceived by men willing to put their lives on the line for democracy. Think back to the Revolutionary War, and all that entailed. Where would we be now if the British had won that war?
Consider George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, the founding fathers and a real brain trust when one considers all with which they were confronted.
“… can long endure.” Have we reached the end of our period of grace? Do we have what is needed to endure the onslaught of what this administration puts forth daily? Are we willing to do everything possible to turn this country around or are we content to devolve into an autocracy or even a dictatorship?
These are questions I can’t answer, but let me conclude with an excerpt from Lincoln’s summary.
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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.”
Consider those American military folk who have given “the last full measure.” From World War I through the present.
This much I do know: I will fight in every way I can, which is probably limited to my writing. I love my country, and I believe we, when united in purpose, can work to bring it back to a place of respect, indeed glory. At my age, to believe otherwise is inviting a path of depression which I refuse to travel.
Happy July 4th, dear readers. Sorry there are no digressions in this one, but the subject requires staying on point at all costs!
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”