Union - upheld…

Tuesday, Americans will celebrate our Independence Day.

It’s Monday July 3^rd however, when Americans should commemorate the event that upheld our country’s union.  This event may have literally prevented the United States from being split into two, separate countries.  And it came with a horrific toll.

On July 3^rd, 1863; the third and final, bloody day; the Battle of Gettysburg ended.  Of all the Americans who have died in all the wars our country has ever fought, almost half - 620,000 - died in the Civil War.  Of all the Civil War battles, the one battle with the highest number of casualties was Gettysburg – 51,000 Americans.

There are many stories related to Gettysburg.  Here’s one from my Integral Systems colleague:

As a graduate of The University of Notre Dame I learned that Father William Corby was the chaplain to the Irish regiments who fought for the Union.  Father Corby is the only non-military person with a statue at Gettysburg Battlefield.  It shows him with his hand raised blessing the soldiers.  Today, there is a replica of that statue at Notre Dame and the students call it “Fair Catch Corby”.  Anyway, that is the reason why Notre Dame, founded by French priests in 1842, are called “The Fighting Irish”.

Frank Dunn

I believe every American should visit the Gettysburg National Military Park and pay tribute to the memory of those Americans that preserved the continuation of our union.  

Thankfully, the Union, and the succinct commemoration by one of our greatest leaders (who also gave his life for his country) prevailed: 

Four score 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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not 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. 

Abraham Lincoln spoke to unite all Americans, North and South.  July 4^th, as well as July 3^rd, are days for us to remember; to honor; and to celebrate a united, United States of America.  

May God bless you; and may God bless America! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.