Words spoken at Gettysburg still ring true

Editor's note: This column was written Nov. 19, 2001, a little more than two month after the attack on the World Trade Center, in New York City.

This past Monday, Nov. 19, a very special, but often neglected anniversary passed. One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, in a small farming area of Pennsylvania, not unlike our rural community, several thousand people gathered together for a dedication. The dedication was for a memorial to the thousands of Union soldiers who had lost their lives just over four months earlier at the pivotal battle of Gettysburg.

There are hundreds of battlefields and cemeteries scattered across America from that war, but there is only one Gettysburg. Its fame lives on today and will live to the end of time because of one special occurrence. On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave to all present and to all lovers of freedom, the immortal "Gettysburg Address."

As many may or may not know, there were many other speakers who gave speeches that day. Most of these were lengthy in the vogue of the day. Because radio and television did not exist in those days, orators were important. The ability to speak and hold a crowd's attention was an absolute must for a politician.

Other famous orators like William Jennings Bryan and Mark Twain, are examples of just how much people liked a good speech. Twain traveled the world giving his famous lectures. His shows were almost always sold out. You have only to look back in Nevada's own history to see the immense crowd that gathered at Radio Springs Park to hear Bryan give one of his resounding speeches. A good speech was high drama and news.

Abe Lincoln had, by most accounts, nothing to be ashamed of when it came to speaking. His homespun country-bumpkin type of humor was Iegendary. He rarely spoke without having an anecdote from his youth and time on the frontier. Many a polished speaker found themselves at a loss in a debate with the lanky Illinois lawyer.

Lincoln, it appears, had few illusions about himself or politics. He knew that he was required to give speeches and expound upon all manner of issues as president. He also knew that the press and his political enemies were always near, ready to pounce on any weakness or failure on his part.

Thus, as Lincoln approached the dedication at Gettysburg, he unexpectedly found himself with no speech ready. The country had been at war for a wrenching two years and seven months. Thousands of dead and wounded on both sides had left few families unaffected. Hunger and desperation in the south were the rule. In the north, draft riots and a move to remove Lincoln from office in the next election of 1864 gave the president little peace. The burdens of office were immense and Lincoln had visibly aged in pictures of the time.

He waited to write his speech on the train to Gettysburg. Two hundred and sixty-six meager words scrawled on a piece of paper. He noted to some of those close to him that he was sure his speech would be ridiculed. He even went so far as to allude to this fear in the line from his speech, "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here...."

Oh, how wrong he was.

In the annals of American history, there has never been a speech that has touched the souls of Americans more than the "Gettysburg Address." From the words like "a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and "a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."

In the midst of the terrible

anguish caused by this terrible war, Lincoln, and Lincoln alone, was able to see the big picture. He, as no one else, saw the battle not as a war between the north and the south, the free and the slave, or the economic interests on both sides. He saw the war for what it was -- a test of whether democracy could survive.

Many around the world thought otherwise, He realized the sacrifices that were being made and he knew their ultimate value.

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, 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."

Recently, America has experienced a rebirth of, patriotism. The flag is seen everywhere. Do we know, however, what Lincoln knew, that what we are fighting for is not the flag? It is not our wealth, our lives, our homes, or even our families. What we are fighting for is the liberty that Lincoln consecrated at Gettysburg. People all over the world look to us when the ideas of freedom and democracy are mentioned. It is Americayear after year, unwanted war after unwanted war, who has sent the cream of her youth to fight and die on battlefields all over the world.

The one common thread of those battles is that we are still dedicated to

the proposition that all men are created equal. We still believe in a new

rebirth of freedom. I think if Abe were here today, he would be just as

ready to give a brief address at the World Trade Center. I kind of wish his kind of speech were available.