# 105
“Prepositions”
IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
February 14, 2012
Oh, they are integral parts of speech and necessary for written text and/or oral discourse, but they are more than that!
Perhaps more than any other speech we read as young students and remember as adults is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Written by hand as the president traveled to the site of a horrific Civil War battle, it was delivered from the heart — not with the aid of a teleprompter.
For all the benefits of technology afforded by electronic wizards, the one I wish would disappear is that blasted teleprompter.
There is nothing wrong with a speaker being prepared. Glancing down at notes isn’t a sin. President Reagan, long regarded as “The Great Communicator” had his own sort of shorthand on small cards that guided him through his speeches. One of my most treasured books is a marvelous collection of his speeches. The cover shows him at his desk, pen in hand.
He was a prolific writer and the book “Love Ronnie” chronicles his letters to wife Nancy as he traveled about as a spokesperson for General Electric.
Back to speeches. There is an even or better chance that you not only read that speech given at Gettysburg but that you memorized it. If you are like most Americans, the words “Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers…” spark not only the beginning sentence, but also bring about a recollection the entire text.
We are on a brink of a different kind today — a brink that involves far more than weapons. With this in mind, it is not hard to extrapolate another phrase from a much earlier Lincoln speech.
In his words, “A house divided cannot stand.” Uttered when the nation faced a possible rift and a war among its citizens, the phrase is not hollow today. Those five words perfectly describe what we face now. We have a division among our leaders from the White House down to the floor of both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
That schism is very simple. It is an insult to the any household or small business and one choice would spell their doom. Put simply, you cannot spend more than you earn. Profit and solvency are not dirty words.
In essence, each American worker — young, old, man or woman — earns money from toil. Basically, they exchange time for money. They invest their time working and their reward is a paycheck. Government, on the other hand, does not earn. Government takes.
Those of us old enough to remember statements from other leaders who moved toward “redistribution of wealth” know that the practice never works. There is no country on the face of the earth where taking from one group and giving to another group worked. Oh, it sounds good, but it bodes ill.
It’s always amusing to me that so many so-called “celebrities” clamor to climb on the bandwagon for this view. Aha! But, consider this. They don’t do that unless they have so much money that they don’t have to worry about making the mortgage payment, answering the phone for fear it is a bill collector, lying awake at night trying to figure out how not to lay off an employee, or going without pay as an employer to keep a business in the black.
We listen to election coverage so much that we tune it out. That is sad, because the process should incite thought, not to turn off mentally. Mud isn’t new, but it usually reflects a lack of purpose. For example, with a weak argument, the strategy is to attack the opposition. Ideas and facts always top mud slinging, but mud slinging garners more press. And so it goes…
I am reminded of another Lincoln statement, one that comes at the close of the address. I dissect it to three words: of, by and for — those prepositions that led this column. Undoubtedly, you will remember portions of it: “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.”
Ponder these words: “nation under God”… “government of the people, by the people and for the people”… “shall not perish”.
We are in peril of losing the very freedoms our forefathers pledged their lives to secure. It is time for that new birth of freedom. Think about it.