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)

A full century later, as a boy of nine, I remember the black & white TV images of Dr. King's March on Washington. A few months later, the same TV set, this magic window to other realities, served up the murder of a murderer and a president's funeral.

Five years later, April 4. Free at last. TV (now Brought To You In Living Color!) served up cities in flames. Burn, baby, burn.

Everywhere but Indianapolis, where RFK pleaded for peace and reconciliation.

I wasn't quite fourteen, but I knew that Bobby was right: we needed peace and reconciliation--here, in Vietnam, around the world.

June 5. "Now it's on to Chicago. . ." That sick terror grows in the pit of my stomach, blood hammers in my ears. I'm shaking. Dear God, not again! Tears. Now, too. Four decades fall away: anamnesis. More blood shed for me, for us all.

In spite of everything that has happened to our beloved country since then, especially since 2001, "I still believe in a place called Hope."

YES WE CAN!