A government of the people, by the people, for the people? Those words were spoken in 1863, 87 years (four score and seven) years after the Declaration of Independence. Those words were spoken in the midst of a civil war in which states succeeded from the union, commited treason against the United State, over the issue of "states rights" or specifically, slavery.
In 1776, blacks were most enslvaed (there were a handful of free blacks) but none could vote and in the later US Constitution were defined as 3/5 of a human being for census purposes. Women could not vote. Native Americans could not vote and of course were not citizens. A sidenote: Robert E. Lee never spent a day in jail for leading the Army of Northern Virginbia in war from 1861 through 1865 against the United States. Lincoln's policy of "malice towards none, charity for all prevailed in the wake of his assassination. Remember that when we consider the matter of John Walker Lindh, who it would seem never fired a shot in anger against US forces, having found himself in a situation he could not expect, and was out of it within weeks. Whatever John Walker Lindh did was far, far less than Robert E. Lee iniating, planning, and waging war against the United States for a five year period with an aim of destroying the Union. As we let the confederate soldiers go home with their guns and mules, to rebuild their lives, our American history compels us to let John Walker Lindh go home to rebuild his life. Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people" was his hope, but it was his reality. Blacks could not vote, and it can be arguably affirmed that even now we need the Civil Rights Voting Act in force to ensure the rights of African Americans to vote in this day, in 2002, or not have the votes diluted in gerrymandered districts. Many of us recall vividly the civil rights era - which was in part to get the votes for blacks - over 100 tears after "of the people, by the people, for the people". People gave their lives to secure the rights of blacks to vote, as recently as the 1960s. Women have been allowed to vote since roughly 1920. That is 82 years out of 226 years since the American Revolution. So women have been included in the govenment "of the people, by the people, for the people" for only about 36% of our country's history. I'm not proud of that. Asian Americans and Latino Americans have had similar struggles in getting the vote and being included in "of the people, by the people, for the people.' We must all remeber that in our country's beginning the right of white males to vote was limited to those who owned land. People withoiut property could not vote. "of the people, by the people, for the people" seems a huge joke since Florida 2000. Not just what happened on Election Day, but the tactics of Jeb Bush in the months prior - the disenfranchisement of African Emerican men by the thousands tossed off the voting rolls, in a cleansing for their supposedly having felony convictions which it later turned out, they did not have, but by then, the electiopn was over. The whole Florida experience rebuts the idea that we have "of the people, by the people, for the people." Special interests: the fur industry in the 1700s (whence trhe Astors made their money), the train interests in the 1800s who called the giovernment shots, tehn silver ang gold mine owners in the depression of 1893, then banking interests in the 1910s, then oil interests from Teapot Dome in the 1920s to the Gulf War of 1991 and Bush's energy policies and Enron Goverment "of the people, by the people, for the people" my ass. Not when the Vice President refuses to release the name sof who who were the contributors to the energy plannign meetings held in secret. No govenment "of the people, by the people, for the people" in Cheny. None in Bush, who has delayed federal law in releasing the documents of the Reagan administration and even filed his own governor papers - not in Texas with the state where he was governor but rather in his father's presidential, library where they are outside the scope of texas law- so that what the public records of what Bush was doing as governor will; be kept from "of the people, by the people, for the people." "of the people, by the people, for the people" Bullshit. 20% voted in California. Feel good! In our Michigan recent local elections, we had one township that has 12%, and they were the high for the area. "of the people, by the people, for the people" Not when the McCain Feingold bill was fought so vigorously by the lobbiests; it only passed because Bush's largest campaign contributor, Kenneth Lay, was head of Enron, and the stentch of that permeated the Congress. "of the people, by the people, for the people" Name one congressional action, or executive action, that will lead to voting reform in the next election so we can avoid another Florida. "of the people, by the people, for the people" In Chicago this week, W will pose for poictures for $10,000 and you can get "face time" with him for $25,000, all moneies to the party, The people whp do not have $10,000 oe $25,000 will have no contact wuth their president. "of the people, by the people, for the people" my ass. Lincoln's Gettsyburg address with its closing words that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not pas from the face of the earth was as prayer that we might one day have such. It is a goal, It is an ideal, It is an idea, It is that which we are caled to work for. It is not reality. To cite a hope as reality is to do a diservice to the hope and to deny the relaity. Bush and Cheney are pissants. Gore and Lieberman, while I supported them wholeheartedly, were just pissants with a conscious. Nadar was an egomanic destroyer, What we need these days is a new Lincoln who will call us again to what "of the people, by the people, for the people" will mean as we live out our American vision. To be with some hope, I do suspect that Sen John Edwards of SC and Sen Evan Bayh of Ind offer hope that they have a vision that is in accord with "of the people, by the people, for the people". Failing their candidacies, perhaps Gov Gray Davis might be out best choice as, while lacking vision, is a tehnician with his heart in the right place, Mybe, as Eugene Mccarthy rose up late in 1967 to be a force in 1968, we have another voice yet to be heard which will call us to a higher plan. "of the people, by the people, for the people" What a joke. Itr is is the civic lesson, and it is a joke. The last election ended in fraud and was conducted without a single idea, arguing over tax cuts instead of looking at what issues and responsibilies lay ahead for our nation. And this is avoiding the luncay of 6 months of Bush action is to giv e us color coded terrorism alert - what a farce - and a shadow goverment that operates totally outside the US Constitution. (They left out the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and all the protections oand procedures of the consitution: the foundng fathers would so disown this leaving all power in an unamed, secret shadow executive brach, which by it definition, is tyranny. aren;t you all say that I delurked. And I haven't even begun on the nuclear issue and the little failure to capture Osama bin laden, which is what it was about, and that we are setting the stage to go to war with Iraq - was Osama just a pretext? Does this administration have a thought or policy that it can hold from one day to the next> They drift in the wind, buffeted by ever current, and have no idea what they are doing, other than color codes for us all! If Sting were to wriote a new song, would Rozanne have to turn off the red light because it now indicates the hiugets state or terrorism alert? Next tinme I drive, what do I do when I see yellow light? Tom Ridge and his color coding, the best this administration can offer, ahs given us avery bad, lame Saturday Night Live skit and called it actual policy. The clowns are running Washington. God save the people. (the Rev) Vince and Joni, sing Sex Kills again - you are so right on, my dear.
