Anne and I attended the annual Dedication Day ceremony this morning at Soldiers’s National Cemetery.  It was a beautiful clear and frosty morning and, because this year November 19 falls on a Saturday, there were no seats.  Still, it was wonderful. 

The program is straight forward.  After the presentation of colors, the national anthem, a welcome, introductions, and invocation, the keynote speaker is introduced.  This year it was an actor, Stephen Lang, whose remarks focused on what those who died there have given us. 

After his somewhat lengthy comments, one James Getty, portraying well the 16th President of the United States, made the few appropriate comments that were first spoken in that place on November 19, 1863.  I have written previously on these remarkable words. 

A naturalization ceremony followed.  I listened closely to the oath this year.  I have thought that we birth citizens are perhaps deprived never to have been made to speak these words to acquire the rights and priviliges that these people, some with strong accents of distant lands, must speak to gain them.  I present them the Naturalization Oath for your consideration. 

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;

that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;
and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Mr. Lang, this day’s speaker, commented on the Roman Empire, its collapse, and the persistence of our Union.  My opinion, valid or not, is that the Roman nation failed because its citizens forgot what it was worth.  I somethings think that many Americans have forgotten what their nation is worth.  Worse, they take it for granted, and forget that it is only as good as we make it. 

This morning we were party to a large group that despite widely differing views and opinions were there to celebrate what we have and honor those who truly gave the last true measure of devotion defending that hill which at that moment was the heart of our nation. 

The Army of Northern Virginia had come to destroy the Army of the Potomic which was charged with defending the national capital.  At Gettysburg Mr. Lee’s expeditionary force formed a loop about this hill where elements of the United States Army stood desperately to defend not only the hill, but themselves and Washington D.C. which was now being attacked from the north.  

This hill bled long and furiously on the 3rd of July, 1863, but the lines held and the tide of the Confederacy began a wearisome ebb.  After the disengagement the war moved elsewhere;  the local community attempted, with limited outside support, to recover and to manage the wounded and the carnage. 

There was no question that a cemetery was needed.  The effort started locally, but within weeks Pennsylvania appropriated funds.  Ultimately, the federal government took title and provided more support.  By November of 1863, remains were being removed from shallow graves or mere piles into places of honor upon the hill.  The dedication ceremony was not a reflection upon the glories of a romantic war in the distant past, but upon the horrors of a recent hurt.  The war was not over.  Pennsylvania would be invaded again in 1864.

Lincoln’s words said all of this.  They are too full to hear well when spoken, but read and re-read, they express the worth of the nation and sacrifice necessary to keep it. 

Our nation cannot be kept if we ignore it.  And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

This statement was made in 1961 as a warning.  Today, we risk loosing it all because of an increasingly pervasive view that the government can or should somehow support us.  Whereas government should provide the means for welfare, it cannot provide it directly.  I fear that we are loosing an understanding of this.  If we all expect others to support us, our empire (an extensive operation or sphere of activity controlled by one person or group) surely will collapse.