Hallowed ground

This weekend will be one of the busiest of the year. School's out. Vacations are starting. Summer activities abound. But let's keep focused on the reason for this long Memorial Day weekend. This is the holiday when Americans honor those who have died for their country while serving under the U.S. flag.

Since 1866, when a special day was set aside to honor those who died in the Civil War, Americans have paused each Memorial Day to remember the sacrifices made on behalf of all Americans. There will be several special observances in our area over the weekend. By making time to participate you can show your admiration and support for the ideals and freedoms that have been won and protected by men and women in uniform.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the special observances today and Monday:1 p.m. today: American Legion Post 63 open house, 2731 Thomas Lane, Cape Girardeau.

6 a.m. Monday: Avenue of Flags at Cape County Park.

9 a.m. Monday: Memorial service at Old City Cemetery, Jackson

10 a.m. Monday: Parade in Perryville.

10:30 a.m. Monday: Memorial Day program at Osage Community Centre, Cape Girardeau.

2 p.m. Monday: Perryville American Legion program.

President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was delivered in 1863 at the dedication of the cemetery for casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg -- nearly three years before the official designation of Memorial Day. So many eloquent words have been spoken about the honor and bravery of U.S. soldiers in time of war. But Lincoln's brief message on Nov. 19, 1863, is as moving today as it was then.

Read these powerful words and think of those who have given their lives on behalf of American freedom.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed 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 rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation 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