In times of war or loss of life, leaders address the people in order to encourage and reassure and inspire action. President Lincoln dedicated a cemetery for fallen soldiers at Gettysburg and delivered one of the most powerful and quoted messages to all people for all time. The address was criticized in harsher language than the GOP presidential candidates used for each other in the primary. The Chicago Times stated “every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly … remarks of the man who has to be pointed out as the President of the United States.” The London Times stated the dedication was so “dull and commonplace” that the “ceremony was rendered ludicrous … by poor President Lincoln.”
Lincoln spoke of “a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” which nation was being tested by war to determine if it could “long endure.” He said that the people must be “dedicated to the great task remaining” and “from these honored dead … take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion” and resolve themselves that “these dead shall not have died in vain … 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.”
The Pulse Nightclub in Orlando is not the resting place of soldiers, but the citizens there had their lives taken by a deranged gunman who killed in the name of hate. The amount of lives lost was due, in part, because the maladjusted coward was able legally to obtain firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle, without adequate regulation. Now is the time to act and fight back against gun manufacturers and the NRA.
Get the “report card” distributed by the NRA and if you are outraged at mass shootings in our nation, take it and cast a vote for any candidate who earns a “C” or worse from the NRA so that candidates who can discuss reasonable federal gun regulation will be elected to Congress. Donald Trump received an unqualified endorsement from the NRA.
President Obama placed flowers at a memorial for the victims of the terrorist attack in Orlando and said, “Here in Orlando, we are reminded not only of our obligations as a country to be resolute against terrorists, we are reminded not only of the need for us to implement smarter policies to prevent mass shootings, we’re also reminded of what unites us as Americans, and that what unites us is far stronger than the hate and the terror of those who target us.”
He astutely pointed out that the killer claimed to kill for ISIS but he targeted gay, bisexual and transgender people at the Pulse Nightclub and that it mattered not the motivations of the killer because this was an act of terrorism and a crime of hate.
President Obama said, “hatred towards people … regardless of where it comes from, is a betrayal of what’s best in us. … you can’t make up the world into “us” and “them” and denigrate and express hatred towards groups because of the color of their skin, or their faith, or their sexual orientation, and not feed something very dangerous in this world.” He recognized that now was “a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity.”
The Gettysburg Address contained a simple truth that “all men are created equal” while President Obama recognized that “everybody counts and everybody has dignity.” Our government must do more to protect the people and protect the individual civil rights of all people.
We the people are equal, under the law, regardless of wealth, race, creed, gender, religious belief or sexual orientation, and equality is not a monolithic “evenness” or a bland uniformity. We were granted an equal opportunity for happiness and an expectation that we will be protected from violence and harassment while seeking to enjoy that opportunity for happiness.
We need a president and a Congress that can protect that basic belief while it protects its citizens. The ridiculous conflation of our gun laws enables the haters in our midst to obtain the tools needed to kill whenever they are motivated to strike out. Our government must stop the politicization of the issue of gun regulation and do something.
Like Lincoln, Obama was criticized after addressing the nation after tragedy. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for President Obama to step down because he “disgracefully refused to even say the words: Radical Islam.” He continued, “If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words ‘Radical Islam’ she should get out of this race for the presidency.” He has recognized that this is the only way he could become president.
May her memory be a blessing 
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