A call to duty

As we gather this Memorial Day to celebrate with friends and family, or with community to honor those who sacrificed everything to defend and protect the great nation our founders envisioned, a constitutional Democratic Republic based upon freedom, liberty, and justice for all, we would do well to reflect upon the words President Abraham Lincoln delivered at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863.

Speaking to the gathered crowd, Lincoln concluded his speech with these words, “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.”

Of, by and for, three of the smallest words in the English language but clearly the most important if we are to preserve our constitutional Democracy. Let us rededicate ourselves to fulfill Lincoln’s wish that our form of government not perish from the earth.

To do so means we must not sit idly by as our democratic institutions come under attack. Lincoln speaking once again, “To sin by silence, when it’s a duty to protest, makes cowards of all men.”

Larry Hodgden

Tipton