On the shoulders of our soldiers let's continue the 'unfinished work'

Julie Reeder

Publisher

On this Memorial Day it's good to remember that our country was created with the radical ideas that we each had individual rights and then that the government would exist to protect those rights, rather than the people existing to serve an ever increasing and controlling government. Those rights included to live free, the pursuit of happiness, the ability to protect yourself and even enjoy personal property rights.

I believe we have to keep reminding ourselves of this and teaching it to our kids. America is unique that way. Our freedoms are not granted by the government, but by God, and protected by our government. Even if our governor declares emergency powers or our President signs an agreement with the UN or the World Health Organization.

Our country had to fight a Revolutionary War 1775-1783 to separate from the control of a tyrannical King and then from 1861–1865 we fought the Civil War to end slavery. President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address (below) said our country was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Today we have to fight division within our society and those that would divide us for the color of our skin, religion, or our beliefs of medical freedom. We have to continue our fight against unconstitutional tyrannical policies legally through the courts. It's hard work for citizens who have enjoyed first world comforts for decades, but we can do it. Let's be encouraged by President Lincoln.

Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg:

Abraham Lincoln Nov. 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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot 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.”

This Memorial Day, let's again honor the sacrifices and remember the wars fought and those who lost their lives, remember the principles of equal rights and individual liberties for all. We do not need to dismantle what we have built.

In the places where tyranny of injustice rears its ugly head, let us continue the unfinished work and fight it openly. Let us be diligent and courageous. Let us keep watch, be educated, active and involved in order to maintain the freedoms we still have. We owe that to our veterans, their families, children and grandchildren.

God Bless America still.