As we prepare for the 2020 election,
I'd like to share some quotes from great Americans who held a collective vision of greatness for all of the people of our country and all of the people of the world.
Who held the prayer of America,
Knowing that that prayer for freedom and liberty has not been realized for all,
But that all of us can share in this prayer of realizing this freedom and unity,
Not just for Americans,
But for all people everywhere.
So as you vote or watch election results come in on the news,
As we see divisiveness in forms of media,
Let this meditation help us rise above,
To remember the truth and the prayer of freedom that began not just at the dawning of America,
But the dawning of mankind,
The dawning of humankind that stays with us today.
From Abraham Lincoln,
We are not enemies,
But friends.
We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained,
It must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched,
As surely as they will be,
By the better angels of our nature.
From Eleanor Roosevelt,
The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas,
The beliefs,
The values,
The dreams of the people.
It is not so much the powerful leaders that determine our destiny as the much more powerful influence of the combined voice of the people themselves.
From Frederick Douglass,
Education means emancipation.
It means light and liberty.
It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth,
The light by which men can only be made free.
From Ronald Reagan,
Blood that is soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color.
America stands unique in the world,
The only country not founded on race but on a way,
An ideal,
Not in spite of but because of our polygot background.
We have had all the strength in the world.
That is the American way.
From George Washington,
It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness,
Frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
From Martin Luther King Jr.
,
In the process of gaining our rightful place,
We must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
From Calvin Coolidge,
If we are to have that union of spirit which is the foundation of real national genius and national progress,
We must all realize that there are true Americans who did not happen to be born in our section of the country,
Who do not attend our place of religious worship,
Who are not of our racial stock,
Who are not proficient in our language.
If we are to create on this continent a free republic and an enlightened civilization that will be capable of reflecting the true greatness and glory of mankind,
It will be necessary to regard these differences as accidental and unessential.
We shall have to look beyond the outward manifestations of race and creed.
Divine providence is not bestowed upon any race a monopoly of patriotism and character.
And lastly,
Once again,
From Abraham Lincoln,
When I was a young man in Illinois,
I boarded for a time with the deacon of the Presbyterian church.
One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door,
And I heard the deacon's voice exclaiming,
Arise,
Abraham,
The day of judgment has come.
I sprang from my bed and rushed to the window,
And I saw the stars falling in great showers.
But looking back of them,
In the heavens I saw the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted,
Fixed and true in their places.
Gentlemen,
The world did not come to an end then,
Nor will a union now.
