Dear Christopher,

A couple of nights ago, I went to visit the Lincoln Memorial. The emotional power of the memorial struck me as it has always done.

I remember being there with my daughter when she was a little girl, crouching down beside her to read lines from the Gettysburg Address. This time I was musing on what Lincoln's words mean for us today, as we in our time are challenged to bring forth a “new birth of freedom.”

Speaking on the battlefield where so many thousands had died, Lincoln honored those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” so that “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” would not perish from the earth. 

We celebrate those words, and we respect the dead about whom they were spoken. But in order to truly honor them, we must do more than that now. We must ask ourselves what those words, and those sacrifices, mean for us today. 

In order to live in good faith with our ancestors, as well as in full measure of devotion to our descendants, America must look in the mirror now. For a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is perishing, and it is perishing on our watch. It is painful to look at this, yet we must look at it if we’re to change it. 

The underpinnings of our democratic philosophy are currently under assault, as we have transitioned from a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” to a government of “a few of the people, by a few of the people, and for a few of the people.” Our government does more to serve the short-term profits of a corporate aristocracy—insurance companies, big pharmaceutical companies, gun manufacturers, chemical companies, banks, food companies, oil and gas companies, and defense contractors—than it does to serve us, our children, or our planet. 

And we must fix that.

Below is a video I made at the Lincoln Memorial. With the Washington Monument in the background, I laid out my thoughts about what we must do to course-correct our country. I hope you will join me in an historic crusade to make it happen.

WATCH VIDEO

Other generations have shown up for our country in perilous hours. Now it is our turn, in the words of Lincoln, to "highly resolve... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." 

Let's do this together...

with love,
Marianne

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