“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. – Abraham Lincoln (the Gettysburg Address)

Gettysburg! What an amazingly beautiful landscape, upon which is written such an explosively violent story, where somewhere around 170,000 people struggled and fought each other to the death in a three-day pitched battle that proved to be the balance point on which this American experiment teetered and almost failed.

We took the children to the visitors center first, where they saw the exhibits, watched an excellent video and then experienced the dramatic cyclorama before we toured the entire battlefield.

It is there in the cornfields and amongst the rocks, on Seminary Ridge and at the scene of Pickett’s Charge, standing at a fence where relentless artillery smashed into human beings seeking shelter, on the meadows where cannon and canister and musket-ball shredded lines of young men as they advanced in close formation – and of listening to Lee’s words echo in the hollow silence when he ordered Pickett to rally his men and prepare for another charge: “You must look after your division…” followed by the reply that still lingers, “General Lee, I have no division….”

It is there that the full weight of Lincoln’s words resonate. He is not using rhetoric, or appealing to some idea of a government “perishing from the earth.” Lincoln is describing the very real death throes of America. It was that close. And it was – America is – in a very real sense that fragile.

We are fragile because our kind of government requires not just the consent of the governed, but intelligent, informed, thoughtful consent rooted in a common understanding and practice of morality, and of trust in our institutions.

So, yes, a good day. A thoughtful day where we learned and we felt challenged and grateful and free… and at the same time troubled exactly because we do understand history.

That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. – DEREK