Just imagine
on next November 19th
(4th anniversary of the day Mahinda Rajapakse became President)
if
Mahinda would read the same words of honor
dedicating a ground
in
Killinochchi
for all the soldiers
who sacrificed their lives in war.
How would you feel.
Abraham Lincoln's
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863
______________________________
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 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 so dedicated,
can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field 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 can not dedicate --
we can not consecrate --
we can not 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.
-By Abraham Lincoln-
_____________________________________________________________________
Senator Charles Sumner
commented On June 1, 1865,
on what is now considered the most famous speech
by President Abraham Lincoln.
In his eulogy on the slain president,
he called it a "monumental act."
He said Lincoln was mistaken that
"the world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here."
Rather, the Bostonian remarked,
"The world noted at once what he said,
and will never cease to remember it.
The battle itself was less important than the speech."
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 so dedicated,
can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field 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 can not dedicate --
we can not consecrate --
we can not 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.
-By Abraham Lincoln-
_____________________________________________________________________
Senator Charles Sumner
commented On June 1, 1865,
on what is now considered the most famous speech
by President Abraham Lincoln.
In his eulogy on the slain president,
he called it a "monumental act."
He said Lincoln was mistaken that
"the world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here."
Rather, the Bostonian remarked,
"The world noted at once what he said,
and will never cease to remember it.
The battle itself was less important than the speech."
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