The Ghettosburg Address*

Four hundred and one half dozen years ago, invaders brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived through theft and slavery, and dedicated to the proposition that white men are superior. 

Since that time, we have been engaged in a one-sided civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  The question before us being the oldest of humanity: can ill-gotten power sustain an oppressive regime or must that oppressor fall under the weight of contradictions generated at its birth and forever held in its bosom?  The entire continent is thus a battlefield of that war.  We are now all forced, by innumerable events—formal and informal; interpersonal and systemic—to recognize and officially acknowledge that this land is one on which only one ideal can live.  After centuries of denial, it is altogether fitting and proper—indeed imperative—that we should do this. 

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground because most of us have no legitimate authority here and precious few of its rightful inheritors survive to claim it.  The brave men and women, past and present, who struggle here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract.  The globe is forever changed by the events that occurred over here over these centuries, but it may someday recover the peace that was upset here. 

In a somber yet hopeful spirit, it is for us the living to reflect upon and then forever choose our position in this war—to side with white supremacy or the equality of peoples.  And then to fight will all vigor, recognizing, as our ancestors did, that this war cannot end but in the complete and final defeat of one or the other ideal.  We see now, as our ancestors did, that the realization of either ideal excludes the possibility of the other, both by definition and its necessarily complete consumption of the energies and institutions of any people.  We see now, as our ancestors did, that both ideals require more than articulation; that both require instantiation and that such instantiation is the eternal damnation of the other. 

Therefore, it is for us to be here dedicated to the great task inherited by each of us and remaining before us all—that from this reflection we take increased devotion to the war that defines this land—that we highly resolve that injustice shall not perpetually reign—that this nation shall finally give birth to freedom—and that no matter the costs—equality of all people, defined by oppressed peoples, ensuring justice for all people, shall soon be realized upon this earth. 

*aka "The Sanford, FL Address" following George Zimmerman's acquittal for murdering Trayvon Martin

** Lincoln's speech is here.  

*** This is a first draft, written to process this highly emotional, serious, and political moment.  Comments and edits are welcome.