By Will Heyer

Abraham Lincoln is widely considered to be the greatest American president because he took office at a time when the nation faced a true existential crisis and he preserved the union. This victory came at a terrible price; any student of our history knows that more Americans died in the Civil War than any other war we have fought. When Lincoln arrived at Gettysburg and surveyed the bloodied field where some 50,000 soldiers--many of them just boys--breathed their last, he knew that this carnage had to mean something, that it had to serve a worthy, almost holy purpose. It was not enough to say these men and boys died because the southern states had no right to secede; it was not enough even, in truth, to say that they died to end the evil of slavery in this country.

No mother wants to hear that her son was killed in an effort to enforce federal rule-of-law, and slavery could have been ended via diplomatic measures like strict sanctions and tariffs (albeit it would have taken longer). This unimaginable sacrifice could not be justified with a hastened moral victory; it had to stand for something eternal, for an idea, specifically, the idea of who we are and what we will be, from now till the end of time, and so he wrote the immortal words, "...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...that this nation...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."



"Shall not perish from the earth." This places the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as, by logical extension, the Battle of Bunker Hill and D-Day and others, in the context of a continuum. They are not stand-alone events bound only to their time and the people of that time; they are each a part of a larger story, vision, and effort to preserve the idea of self-government and liberty forever, for all future generations. They are not obelisks marking the grave of some dead pharaoh, but pillars of the Acropolis.



This nation faces a new existential crisis, not from the threat of dissolution or nuclear holocaust, as we have faced in the past, but from the fruits of our own carelessness and inaction. I am, of course, referring to climate change. Most if not all conservatives will tell you the science is questionable in some way: that it is a hoax perpetrated by a greedy green energy industry, that we cannot be sure humans are causing climate change, etc. This is utter nonsense on the face of it and I will not defend the facts here.

One more set of pie charts and satellite imagery of the Arctic ice sheet receding is not going to change the mind of anyone who has not come around already, and beyond that, I believe that the people in power, especially our congressmen, are by-and-large too smart and well-informed not to know that climate change is real, and we're causing it.

I am, however, not jaded enough to believe that conservatives are corrupt or evil enough to allow the fossil fuel industry to continue ravaging the planet merely for personal gain. I think that, like most people most of the time, they are doing what they think is right. Maybe they have seen the evidence, but they also know that many of their constituents are dependent on the oil industry, and they are afraid more regulation will hurt already destitute communities, and they have made a calculated decision to put the future at risk for the sake of the present. Maybe they are afraid they will lose their seat if Exxon bankrolls a primary challenger, and they have decided to compromise on this issue because they can't help their constituents if they aren't in congress.

Either way, if I'm right at all, then these are not bad people who don't care about anyone else, but they have adopted a position and attitude that is completely antithetical to the revelation of the Gettysburg Address.



There is an old saying in politics: "It's the economy, stupid!" Providing fertile ground for the economy to flourish, and for the jobs that come with that, is an important part of the federal government's function--if people can't eat, they can't be truly free--but creating a business-friendly atmosphere has never been the primary directive of our government, or of this nation. Nobody died at Bunker Hill or Normandy so we can get more dollars on the barrel; they died so that no American would ever suffer under the boot of a dictator, and that the world might be a better place for it. They died for the idea of the continuum, the greatest, most powerful idea we have ever had, and an idea that is far bigger and more important than the economic woes of some Americans.

Yes, millions of Americans are desperate for relief, for jobs that pay a livable wage, but it cannot come at the cost of putting the Republic at risk. If we do not get serious about addressing climate change, sooner or later, we will not have a hospitable planet, let alone a country, anymore. If we are to honor the sacrifices of those who died to preserve this union, it is our duty to pick up the mantle where they left it, and to further ensure "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."



Will Heyer is a resident of Hoboken who has occasionally provided letters and Op-Eds on political issues to The Jersey Journal.