Read the Gettysburg Address

Americans have lost their commitment to shared sacrifice. Lincoln's speech can help them recover it.

By Eliot SpitzerPosted Friday, June 4, 2010, at 11:42 AM ET

How quickly we forget. Just days ago, on Memorial Day—a day of gratitude, respect, and celebration—the words of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address were read at ceremonies across the nation. The phrase from that speech that always sticks with me is the challenge President Lincoln set forth for us: "[R]esolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." He implored us not to shy away from the sacrifices we too have an obligation to shoulder in order to advance the "unfinished work" that remained—not merely winning the Civil War and ending slavery, but the continued creation of a nation with opportunity for all.