Happy Birthday Abe

I've been thinking about Abraham Lincoln today, it being the 200th anniversary of his birth. I wanted to come up with a great post, but a friend of mine has saved me some time. He sent me an email this afternoon that I now quote from because I agree with these principles. Note: I did not vote for Obama, but I appreciate his statement at the end of this quote. Thank you, Spencer, for putting these thoughts together.

"Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday, born in the year 1809. As 16th President of the United States, he led the country through the Civil War, preserving the nation and ending slavery.... His most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, was given at the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where four and half months earlier the Union forces had defeated the Confederacy in that critical battle. In the speech, Lincoln declared that the site was not hallowed as consequence of the ceremony, but the blood of those who there died had consecrated it beyond our power to so designate it. He then called upon the citizens to dedicate themselves to the cause for which those men died, saying, 'It is...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.'

It is fitting to recognize our current President, Barack Obama of Kenyan descent, as a product of Lincoln's legacy. The 44th President has often referred to Lincoln as one of his heroes. Speaking at the newly reopened Ford's Theater earlier today, President Obama said, 'Despite all that divided us-—North and South, black and white —-he had an unyielding belief that we were, at heart, one nation, and one people. And because of Abraham Lincoln, and all who've carried on his work in the generations since, that is what we remain today.'...Perhaps, years from now, we can say to our children that we remember when Lincoln's dream of equal rights was fulfilled in the Highest Office in the Land."

P.S. Happy 200th to Charles too.