President Lincoln delivered the 272 word Gettysburg Address
on November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.”
It might sound irreverent to refer to the Gettysburg Address
as a blurb or a clip but they all have something in common; they use a minimum
of words to express an idea. Expose your
children to this extraordinary piece of writing, which captures important ideas
in the fewest and clearest words possible.
Ask them, "Which sound bites, blurbs or clips from today will be
read 150 years from now?” "Will any
of them even be remembered?"
A sound bite can be deep and reflective, although that is
not always the case. Too many sound bites of today say little and offer less to
think about.
Lincoln dismissed his speech as something “The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here.” What Lincoln said was noted and remembered. Some say, the
battle itself was less important than the speech.
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