Four years ago on election day, I shared the 1 minute music video of Building Bridges, which seems even more idealistic now than in 2016.
I decided to re-share my idealism as I was reminded today of this inspiration 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.”
I came across Lincoln’s 1961 First Inaugural Address excerpt on the website of Citizen University. An election day NPR news story “After Votes Are Counted, What Will It Take to Reconcile the Country?” is what exposed me to Citizen University whose mission is to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship. Most interesting on their site is their election night Gathering Guide resource with ideas of how to experience the evening on one’s own or with loved ones, together or apart. It includes music, poetry, and what they call “Civic Scripture” featuring addresses from Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They also sponsor an annual Civic Saturday which will be on November 7.
As a business owner and Libra who values harmony, I try to post inspiration that can speak to people of many backgrounds and views with the hope that we can find common ground. Therefore, I want to end with the last two paragraphs of Lincoln’s 1961 Inaugural Address. May it give us hope that through grace and love, we will come through these trying, divisive times.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect and defend” it.
I am loath to close. 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 battle-field 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 they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln, 1861