We have not forgotten what you said, President Lincoln...

     On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  He said, "[T]he world will little note nor long remember what we say here".  That, of course, is not true, the world still remembers what Abraham Lincoln said, most notably  "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."  Perhaps we have forgotten why he spoke those words and why his words still speak to us today.
     President Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the cemetery in Gettysburg.  The country was in the midst of a long and bloody war between the northern and southern States that began thirty-nine days after President Lincoln's inauguration.  At Gettysburg, the President called on the citizens of the United States to rededicate themselves to ensuring that the government created by the Constitution would continue and the United States would remain undivided.
     Today, although we are not engaged in a bloody war, we are very much a country divided.  Some want us to return to a time when women had few rights.  Others want us to return to the days of the "wild west" when people walked around with holstered guns and/or carrying rifles.  There are also those who believe only white Christians should be allowed to vote and run the government on the local, state and federal levels.
     These groups all claim to be following in the footsteps of the Revolutionaries and Founders.  They are all wrong.  Those who fought the War for Independence did not do so to create a government of the few, by the few and for the few.  President Lincoln did not accept war and Union soldiers did not give their lives to preserve a government of the few, by the few and for the few.
     Now we must answer President Lincoln's call with our voices and our votes.  We must stand together, united in our belief and determined to protect and pass on to future generations a government that is truly of, by and for all people.