I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 8th song:
The Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent,
A new nation, conceived in Liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation, or any nation
So conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
As a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate –
We can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
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.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
...You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."
— Abraham Lincoln
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.”
–Abraham Lincoln, Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, held at Alton, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1858.
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/02/hbc-90004392
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2010/09/gettysburg-address.html
Happy Birthday, Honest Abe!
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world.... It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.”” –Abraham Lincoln, Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, held at Alton, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1858.
Abraham Lincoln extolled:
"The principles of Jefferson
Are the definitions and axioms of free society…
All honor to Jefferson - to the man,
Who in the concrete pressure of a struggle
For national independence by a single people,
Had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity
To introduce into a merely revolutionary document
An abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times,
And so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days
It shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block
To the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”
What do you think of Patrick Henry's one I and three MEs in one sentence? "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" He did not say he was doing it for someone else; he said ME three times. To freedom fighters like Patrick Henry, I say many thanks.
Nathan Hale did not say he sacrificed. He said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” George Washington and his ragtag army suffered great privations, but it was not sacrifice, since freedom was at stake. The Gettysburg Address of Lincoln did not contain the word sacrifice.
Holding sacrifice as a value leads to the sacrifice of others, like a military draft. Self-sacrifice is masochism and sanctioning it is sadism.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2010/09/gettysburg-address.html
Nice quotes -
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/liberty.htm
Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 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.
Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln3/1:33?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
Post a Comment