Today we honor the men and women who gave their lives in military service to this country.  Depending on whose statistics you accept, their number runs between 1.3 and 2.1 million. 

In our opinion the best recognition of such sacrifice was given by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, in what has become known as his Gettysburg Address.  Especially timeless and transcendent is Lincoln’s expression of 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.”

Sadly, today the Land of Lincoln is a political cesspool that seems a lot more like government for the politicians than “for the people.”  But that didn’t happen overnight: it took decades of “the people” ignoring the civic rights and duties that were secured for them by those who “gave the last full measure of devotion.” 

Remembering those “honored dead” is one thing we owe them today.  The other is a renewed resolve to do a better job of making sure our government continues to be “of the people, by the people, for the people.”