Words to live by from Washington, D.C.

By Abigail Bok

  I spent the past weekend in Washington, D.C., with my sister-in-law. 

   After seeing coverage of Inauguration Day and hearing President Trump’s remarks, we were moved on Sunday to visit several of the city’s temples to the USA’s civic religion: John F. Kennedy’s grave at Arlington Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. 

   Here are some words to live by, drawn from each stop on our pilgrimage:

 John F. Kennedy:

   “We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -

the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Abraham Lincoln, from the Gettysburg Address:

   “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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 here 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.”

Martin Luther King Jr.:

“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

   Let us seize on this moment in our history to crystallize in our minds what our true American values are, and stand tall to fight for them.

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Abigail Bok is a Point Richmond, Calif., writer and author 

of An Obstinate, Headstrong Girl

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