Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:26 pm
* burp *
Let us be thankful for the privilege of living in the most blessed nation in history.
If I may:
The game we play recreates the most awful period in US history. We could have avoided this, in many ways. The best way would have been to enshrine the principles of the Declaration for all men in this nation, from the very start. We didn't, the nettles were too thorny. It was truly more important to get the nation off to a good start. We tabled it, but some knew even then, that at least we had the principles on the record, that all men are created equal, that liberty is the most precious gift of all. These ideas would be a beacon to eventually light the gloomiest cabins in the quarters of the slaves.
Some were afraid that we would pay a heavy price eventually for not extending liberty to all. Unfortunately, they were right. The American genius for compromise, for living with each other amidst disagreements, failed in 1861.
Every drop of blood raised by the lash of a master was paid for with one due to a sword. Yes, we failed; then we got up and righted a profound wrong.
And then we became one nation again, a nation that eventually could hardly understand that we had killed each other by the tens of thousands and sunk billions into waste and destruction.
But we righted the wrong. We died to make men free. We cleansed our sin, so that we truly could become, as Lincoln said, "the last best hope of mankind."
God bless our troops. God bless all Americans and all guests at our table.
And may God always bestow his love and favor on the United States of America, which He has never forsaken.
[color="#AFEEEE"]"Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"[/color]
-Daniel Webster
[color="#FFA07A"]"C'mon, boys, we got the damn Yankees on the run!"[/color]
-General Joseph Wheeler, US Army, serving at Santiago in 1898
RULES
(A) When in doubt, agree with Ace.
(B) Pull my reins up sharply when needed, for I am a spirited thoroughbred and forget to turn at the post sometimes.