A New Birth of Freedom
… is what is at stake in Ukraine
The discovery of what is important to live for can be achieved by the process of elimination.
Ask yourself what you’re willing to die for, or alternately, under what conditions and circumstances would you rather be dead than alive? Or, a third alternative may be to ask yourself what you’d be willing to kill for.
The maxim, “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees” is a hint in that direction.
The Ukrainian people are now in the crucible that forges the unalloyed steel of basic human values. Home, country, family, freedom; these are the things worth killing, and if need be, dying, to protect.
It is the sentiment revealed in the classic Patrick Henry declaration, “As for me and my family, give me liberty, or give me death.”
It is echoed in Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. With the fighting in Ukraine in mind, consider these last sentences.
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 —…
