Biden offers hope, peace and unity in campaign address at Civil War's Gettysburg battlefield

SCREEN CAPTURE / CNN

Democratic nominee for President Joe Biden spoke at Gettysburg, the Civil War battlefield.

OPINION

The setting for what people say is Joe Biden's finest speech was not a coincidence -- the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, where thousands of soldiers died defending the United States.

In a soaring speech Tuesday (Oct. 6) Biden drew from the time when the country was at its most divided to address the divisions that threaten our democracy today under the current administration.

It was fitting, therefore, that Biden quote President Abraham Lincoln, who in his second inaugural address, said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we’re in to build up the nation’s wounds, bind up the nation’s wounds.” 

Biden continued, "Now, we have our work to reunite America. To bind up our nation’s wounds. To move past shadow and suspicion. And so we, you and I together, we press on, even now."

Referencing Lincoln's most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, Biden said, "It cannot be that here and now in 2020, we will allow the government of the people, by the people, and for the people to perish this earth. No, it cannot. And it must not. We have it in our hands, the ultimate power. The power to vote. Its the note instrument ever devised to register our will in a peaceable and productive fashion. And so we must. We must vote. We will vote. No matter how many obstacles are thrown in our way, because once America votes, America will be heard.

Biden also called up the great President, “The nation is worth fighting for,” Biden quoted Lincoln, who prevented the splintering of the United States. 

"So it was," Biden continued. "And so it is, together as one nation under God, indivisible. Let us join forces to fight the common foe of injustice and inequality, hate and fear. Let’s conduct ourselves as Americans who love each other, who love our country, who will not destroy, but will build. We owe it to the dead who were buried here at Gettysburg. We owe that to the living, and to future generations yet to be born.

"You and I are part of a covenant, a common story of divisions overcome and hope renewed," said Biden drawing to a conclusion. "If we do our part, if we stand together, if we keep faith with the past and with each other, then the divisions of our time will give way to the dreams of a brighter, better future. This is our work. This is our pledge. This is our mission. We can end this era of division. We can end the hate and the fear. We can be what we are at our best, the United States of America. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you. We can do this."

It is unfortunate that as the breaking news of the day later in the day drew the media's attention away from Biden's speech, not everyone was able to hear it live or watch it on television. But it is an address for people drowning in the negative news dominating the airwaves and the virtual pathways. Biden's speech Tuesday offers relief from the water torture offered by today's campaigns and hope poked its head above the political muck.

"I will raise hope, not fear," said Biden. "Peace, not violence. Generosity, not greed. And light, not darkness. I'll be a president who appeals to the best in us, not the worst."

Those words washed over me like a warm, gentle wave at a Hawaiian beach. Oh, man! I needed that.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

A July Fourth message of hope and inspiration

As we celebrate Independence Day of the United States, it may seem like we are becoming, more and more, a divided nation. It is always good to take a deep breath and remind ourselves what our nation can be. 

Today, tanks will roll in our nation's capitol and an orange-haired man will claim to be the ultimate patriot. Look pass that individual to the Lincoln Memorial and heed the words of the nation's greatest president who guided a divided nation through times more turbulent than this Trumpian era.

America is constantly changing. It is not static, staid, or self-satisfied. More than just a geographical place, it is a dream, a state of mind, a state of being and a nation of endless possibilities.

The United States is far from perfect. It's flaws are too evident and obvious for us to stand by. It is not enough to just exist within it's borders. America's form of democracy demands your participation, needs you to be informed and to raise your voice and to listen to your conscience. And, when the time comes, vote.

Enjoy our country's Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman as she performs with the Boston Pops on July 4th. She reminds us what we aspire to be as we continue to work towards a "more perfect union."

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Reflecting on Lincoln's words

ED DIOKNO

IT WAS  SIMPLE SPEECH, a short speech, but perhaps it is one of the most famous speeches ever delivered by a U.S. President.

The Gettysburg Address, according to legend, was written as President Abraham Lincoln was in a carriage riding to Gettysburg where a great battle had been fought. 

Amidst the strife and division plaguing our country today - on Lincoln's birthday - it is fitting that we take time to reflect on Lincoln's hallowed words:

"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 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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."

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