We have not. As a nation and as a society, we have made mistakes in governing ourselves. We have made mistakes and we will likely continue to make mistakes. And we have learned and we will continue to learn through those mistakes, even as we debate whether they were mistakes. The issues of freedom are not whether we make mistakes.
True democracy allows for mistakes and for corrections.
The issue of true freedom is whether we continue to seek the ideals of the freedom that we profess. Perhaps that is what has made the difference in this society. Yet, even as he wrote these words, Jefferson knew that this nation was not truly free, and that this nation s dedication to the ideals of freedom would be once again tested in its struggles over slavery. It is this very struggle out of which came the observance of Memorial Day. Almost a century after Jefferson wrote the words of the declaration of independence, another president, Abraham Lincoln, reminded us that this new nation, has been conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal.