"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."
Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
I spent last weekend encamped on the Gettysburg battlefield, doing what is called by the US Park Service, "living history." My son and I, along with a half-dozen other enthusiasts, were dressed as Union army soldiers, in the colorful Zouave uniforms of the 146th New York Volunteer Infantry. After a hot and humid day of firing demonstrations and talking to hundreds of visitors to the park, we settled down in a "period" camp behind the huge Pennsylvania Monument and enjoyed the cool 60 degree weather under the stars.
As I lay on that most hallowed ground, I could not help but recall President Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, given just a few hundred yards from where I slept. Lincoln faced the greatest challenge that any President has ever faced -- the distinct possibility that this democratic experiment would end in failure and North America would not be a bastion of liberty, but a Balkanized and hostile scattering of small nations, all ready to fight each other at a moment's notice. Since that day, no international crisis, to include the Second World War, has ever threatened the immediate survival of the American Union as did the Civil War.
I sat before a campfire this weekend, thinking of Lincoln's speech and how far we have come as a people since 1863. For the first time, an American of African descent stands poised to be elected President of the United States. This has been discussed, dissected and debated for well over a year, to the point of making the fact of the racial makeup of the candidates nearly a non-issue. It is time that we focus away from the racial aspect of the campaign, to the issue that Lincoln pointed out in 1863 -- "to be dedicated here to the unfinished work...for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us..."
The opportunity to put the nation back on the right path, the one that the Union men of Gettysburg consecrated the fields of southern Pennsylvania with their blood, comes but rarely in American history. Eras of reform -- whether from a Republican Theodore Roosevelt or a Democrat John F. Kennedy -- are the outliers on the graph of political leadership in America. Some presidents have been mere officeholders; others have found themselves unable to make lasting change. The presidents who energized, who represented, and who led were the ones we call "great." Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, and JFK understood how to motivate the American people to be more than they thought they were, to reach past the present to build a better future.
How? How should a candidate for president articulate this vision of a better world, in an era of high energy prices, terrorism, health care issues and a host of other problems? By stating a clear policy of reform; by planting a flag on a hill and refusing to retreat. Americans of all ethnicities, orientations, and religions are facing a mounting economic crisis. Home foreclosures are occurring at a staggering rate. While large banks and loan organizations, all ostensibly firm believers in free market economics, are given government handouts to stay solvent, the same is not done for homeowners losing their piece of the American Dream. While the health care and pharmaceutical industries are making record profits, poor Americans are denied adequate health care due to rising costs. While American workers are putting in longer hours every week, their expenses keep rising. Just imagine you are a lower income factory worker in the rural southwest, and have to drive 30 miles a day in your 20 year-old pickup to get to work, while making minimum wage. Now add in the factor of four or five dollar a gallon gas. The worker has no recourse but to go slowly into debt; the factory will not raise wages to support the worker, and the mere rumor of unionization will have the factory packing up for Southeast Asia or Latin America.
This nation needs a new Gettysburg Address; a short, succinct summation not of a roster of problems, but a list of solutions. The people need a leader that can not just spout a set of platitudes about small town values, while endorsing anti-union industries that are happily shipping jobs away from small communities. The people need a Commander in Chief that can show them why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have the moral courage to keep us out of unnecessary wars and to lead us in those rare occasions when military force is legitimately required. The people need a Progressive crusader who is unafraid to "bust Trusts" -- to use his power and authority to do the most good for the greatest number, such as lowering health care costs, investing in a national health care program for lower income citizens, and pushing through environmental reforms to lessen our dependence on pollution-causing energy sources and to bring the United States in line with global environmental agreements.
Carl Sandburg once wrote that when Lincoln said those fateful words that day at Gettysburg, he "stood that day, the world's foremost spokesman of popular government, saying that democracy was yet worth fighting for. He had spoken as one in mist who might head on deeper yet into the mist. He incarnated the assurances and pretenses of popular government, implied that it could and might perish from the earth." This nation is still an unfinished experiment in democracy. Lincoln understood that -- that the United States is constantly struggling against the forces of tyranny, both within and without. Popular government should never be taken for granted; if it is, then the greedy, the corrupt, and the powerful will suppress and supplant the liberties that have been fought for and paid for in the blood of the common citizen. We have seen, in the name of public safety, the very legal fabric of our Republic undermined since 9/11. American soldiers sent to battle without a declaration of war by Congress. FISA and wiretapping. Suspects held without charges and without legal counsel. And so on. All the while, our national prestige, ostensibly the main concern of the present administration, has dropped to levels not seen in history. The nation that once stood for individual human rights, personal dignity, and rule of law has become one that is reviled by some of its oldest allies, turns away immigrants in droves, and shifts its national treasure from the people to oligarchs who invest in cheap overseas labor and hide their money in foreign investments.
We need a president who is willing to "head on deeper yet into the mist." One who understands that democracy -- true representative democracy that is based in the people -- is worth fighting for. We need a President who can articulate to the American people, his fellow citizens, that sacrifices will be required to achieve alternative energy independence and to address the causes that lead radicalized terrorism. Some must be paid in treasure, while others will be paid for in blood. Our Republic is still an unfinished experiment, an "Unfinished Work," a test to see whether normal people can legitimately govern themselves without a divine right King or a strongman to lead them. The Union is still at risk as it was in 1863, as we see racial profiling, bigotry and violence based on sexual orientation, sexism thinly veiled as equality, and a growing flow of wealth into the hands of the few. Just as the Rebellion threatened the very existence of the Nation, so does the modern rot into the body politic today, fed by nearly a decade of corruption and fear.
The Unfinished Work should be the focus of the campaign, nothing else. When it boils down to it, the Unfinished Work is the real issue of the campaign; everything else is minor in comparison. It is time for New Gettysburg Address, to put this Union back on the proper path of liberty and democracy. Senator Obama is the only one who can give this speech. Coming from the voice of another, it would sound hollow, not hallowed. It is time for Senator Obama to dedicate his campaign and the American people to the unfinished work of this great Republic, "to ensure that 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."