Salute a Veteran today

[vulturesrow]

Today is Veterans' Day. Id be willing to bet you know some. Thank them for their service.

[ThaSaltCracka]

my boss sent out this e-mail today:
Nov. 19, 1863

Unfortunately, the economic realities of our business do not allow us to close today in recognition of Veteran's Day. However, I hope that everyone might have a moment to reflect on the sacrifice made by the Veterans of yesterday and the Soldiers of today. I have included below what I consider to be one of the most effective, powerful and brilliant speeches ever written. It may be short in text but little has ever been longer in meaning.

In June 1863 Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee moved north in an effort to win a dramatic victory that would reverse the South's declining fortunes. On July 1-3, Lee's forces fought the Union army under the command of George C. Meade, and before the fighting ended, the two sides suffered more than 45,000 casualties. Lee, having lost more than a third of his men, retreated, and the Battle of Gettysburg is considered a turning point in the American Civil War.

The dedication of the battlefield and cemetery thus provided Abraham Lincoln with an opportunity for a major address, but he disappointed many of his supporters when he gave this short talk. In fact, many of the spectators did not even know the president had started speaking when he finished. But in this talk Lincoln managed to combine all the elements of the battle and the dedication into a unified whole.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fourscore 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 battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. 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 hallowed 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 rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation 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."

[jakethebake]

Nice veterans sentiment, but it still galls me when people refer to the War of Northern Agression as the Civil War.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice veterans sentiment, but it still galls me when people refer to the War of Northern Agression as the Civil War.

[/ QUOTE ]spoken like a true southener

[Boris]

Good idea.

[cnfuzzd]

Uh,,, wouldnt it,,, i mean,,, its still a civil war, isnt it?

peace

john nickle

[jakethebake]

no. look up the definition. do you see why?

[cnfuzzd]

Oh, i see what you are saying. I guess you are right. Im still glad that the side of truth and justice won though....


[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


peace

john nickle

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
but it still galls me when people refer to the War of Northern Agression as the Civil War.


[/ QUOTE ]

Southern Political Correctness at its finest.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
but it still galls me when people refer to the War of Northern Agression as the Civil War.

[/ QUOTE ]
Southern Political Correctness at its finest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh heh heh. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]