To Do All Which May Achieve And Cherish A Just And Lasting Peace Among Ourselves

Whether you have already voted in the 2020 Presidential election or not, if you are eligible to do so, then do so.  We the people of these United States have become, on both sides of the ever-widening political chasm, specialists in the manufacture of faux outrage.  If you opt to sit this election out, and a candidate (or candidates) you preferred loses, whether by one vote, one hundred thousand votes, or ten million votes, then please commit - right now - into putting as much effort into venting your spleen for the next four years as you did into participating in the process this year.  Actually, do not bother to make that commitment.  You and I both know you are lying as you make it.  Let us not allow you to waste any more of my time - or the time of all those who have opted in and who have participated in the process. 

Regardless of this Presidential election's outcome, let us all commit to treating those with whom we disagree politically with civility and to accepting the election's results, whether favorable or not to our candidate. May the two candidates, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, treat each other, the election's results, and us in a like fashion.  

Throughout this campaign, Abraham Lincoln's name has been invoked a great deal.  Setting aside the propriety or lack thereof of Mr. Trump's repeated invocation, given the critical role Abraham Lincoln played in the life of these United States, including guiding this nation into, through, and out of the War Between the States, if saying his name prompted a single person into learning something about the man who adorns the penny and the five-dollar bill, then it was worth it.  

March 4, 1865 was Abraham Lincoln's Second Inauguration.  At the time he gave it, the War Between the States had not yet ended although it was in its final moments.  Thirty-five days later, on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which effectively ended the conflict.  

The text of President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial. Its closing paragraph is simply extraordinary:  

Photograph by Joshua Cogan 

(c) Joshua Cogan

"To do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." For the Republic to survive and to thrive for my grandchildren and yours, Mr. Lincoln's words must not be a fanciful dream but, rather, a goal each of us strives to attain - and to maintain. 

-AK