True North

I had forgotten to mention Flag Day, which celebrates the emblem of our nation. Normally I’d fly the flag myself, but at the moment I’m traveling in Southern California on family business, so I haven’t the opportunity to put the flag up at home. I’ll do it here instead:

On Monday Thomas Jefferson turned 265; April 14 was the 265th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. The anniversary was marked by President and Mrs. Bush with a reception in the East Room of the White House. Harking back to Lincoln's remarks on Jefferson, President Bush observed: "With a single sentence, Thomas Jefferson changed the history of the world."

"One of the most valuable lessons that history has to teach us is that after the most terrible frustration and discouragement, sometimes change can come so quickly and so unexpectedly, it surprises even those who have made it happen. This is particularly true in Washington. One Cabinet member in a former administration put it very well: 'The toughest job in Washington,' he said, 'is being able to tell the difference between the tides, the waves, and the ripples.' Well, actually that's been the problem with the perceptions of many of the experts and the pundits; they concentrate so much on the ripples, they can’t see the waves and the tides."

—Ronald Reagan

But, 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—that this nation, under God, 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.

—Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)