Oct 20, 2020 2 min read

I wondered how President Lincoln would have written his Gettysburg Address today? It might have gone something like this:

Two hundred forty-four years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal …

Now we are engaged in a great global pandemic war with an unseen enemy, testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived or so dedicated, can long endure. We have come to dedicate our very nation on this field of battle, to those who have lost their lives during this pandemic, and those who came forward and made a stern defense against the destruction of this republic … It is altogether fitting and proper we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground upon which our patriots have held a defense, and those who have fallen. The brave men and women, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note or long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is us, the living, rather to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought and died here.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – That from these honored patriots we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their full measure of devotion – that we are highly resolved that our dead shall not have died in vain and those who refused to let our country fall – shall resist those forces against us –  That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Think about this when you go to vote.

Joseph Lacko

Waynesburg