Thinking of that scene of remembrance, I was reminded that one hundred and forty years ago a group of Americans gathered in a field in Pennsylvania to honour the fallen from the Battle of Gettysburgh and to commit to the nation’s memory three days of slaughter that had claimed the lives of six thousand men and wounded forty thousand more.
Some of President Lincoln’s words from the address he gave at Gettysburgh might also serve to commemorate the heroes of flight 93, the New York fire-crews and all those others who stepped up and served that day.
… in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 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 -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain …
