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In the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln declared that our forebears brought forth a “ new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Ours was to be a “government of the people, by the people, for the people….”
Lincoln’s short speech reaffirmed the promise of the Declaration of Independence that “all Men are created equal” and that, “they are endowed…with certain unalienable Rights, … Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
These documents articulated the desire for a country that would become better than it had been, freer than it had been. During those times, the U.S. was not that country. Racial inequality continued under many guises, and economic equality continued to be a fantasy.
The most important point here is that there was a vision of a better nation.
Is that vision still alive? I see today’s “kings” as the obscenely wealthy whose concern for “we the people” is blatantly absent. They are never rich enough, and we are seemingly never poor enough. A desire for racial equality is being crushed by what I see as a fascist government that feeds the fire of racism to achieve its inhuman ends.
The founders needed a revolution to become a better nation. And, in 1861, another war to establish a better nation was needed.
Today, to reach that goal, I believe we all must stand against those who reject it. If we do, the wealthy cohort that is crushing our country will, I think, have no choice but to yield to our vision of a nation based on equality. Only then can we honestly celebrate this 250th anniversary.
Dana Williams
Belfast