VOTE FOR US

Submitted by ub on

Belonging to an immigrant community in the United States is difficult enough as it is, even though this is the world's melting pot.

Between not seeing accurate or positive portrayals of yourself in the media and not necessarily fitting in with your peers, some can become filled with questions about identity. Sort of strangers in a strange land.

Now, imagine a couple being a part of two totally separate immigrant communities – that is, two continents with different customs, languages, religions and beliefs – while living in America.

If this is your reality or that of someone you love then it can simultaneously inhabit three different worlds, and it’s not always easy to reconcile the disparities between them.

I see people of many cultures and racial backgrounds trying to work and live in peace by following the rules, while some others act like they are special, or entitled and do not follow the norm. They know who they are.

Some GOP factions of the MAGA cult are attempting to foment a revolution Another Civil War of perhaps a different name. One name is The War Between the States, while others include The War for Southern Independence and The War of Separation; in the North popular names included The War for the Union and The War of the Rebellion.

A real Republican once uttered the following words. We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that 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.” President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) The closing words of his Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863 (as recorded in the “Hay Copy” of the speech stored at the Library of Congress, one of five written versions)   

As noted in The Quote Verifier and other sources, Lincoln’s phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is the best-known use of the of/by/for the people formula, but Lincoln probably adapted his version from a similar phrase used in the 1850s by abolitionist preacher Theodore Parker.

During the early months of the Civil War, Lincoln’s law partner William Herndon gave the president a book of Parker’s sermons and speeches. It included a sermon titled “The Effect of Slavery on the American People,” which Parker delivered at the Music Hall in Boston, Massachusetts on July 4, 1858. In that sermon, Parker said: “Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.” According to Herndon, Lincoln marked those words in his copy before he wrote the Gettysburg Address. Parker had used a similar line in earlier sermons and speeches. For example, in a speech he gave in Boston on May 29, 1850, Parker defined democracy as “a government of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people.” However, the of/for/by the people formulation was not coined by Parker. Some prefer an older version.

“It is, Sir, the people’s government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the United States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law.”Daniel Webster (1782-1852) American lawyer, politician, orator, and statesman. Discussing the limitations of state’s rights and the supremacy of federal law in his “Second Speech on Foote’s Resolution” in the U.S. Senate, on January 26, 1830.

Remember that many have come before us and they all adapted and conformed to the US Constitution and so should We The People... And so it goes.