Gettysburg revisited

In Competition No. 2989 you were invited to submit a version of the Gettysburg Address as it might have been given by a prominent figure on the world stage.

As space is tight, I pause only to commend Frank Upton and Paul Carpenter before handing you over to Messrs Blair, Trump and Wilson, with Charles I bringing up the rear. The winners take £30 each.

Many years ago my forefathers made it possible for me to address you here on this memorable site and I am honoured to speak for them and for all future generations. Wars come and go but people like me, dedicated to running a nation, don’t. We’re here to remember those who died, of course, but the living are just as important, and me more so. I have no doubt that the world will long remember my words when the smoke of battle here has vanished from history, will long remember the careful phraseology and the urgent message which God has seen fit to place on my tongue. I beg my listeners and future readers to look beyond the significance of a mere battle to the rich message my words contain. Out of our old labours and our foolish wars will come, I promise you, a new approach that I myself have fashioned, so that men shall not have died in vain. It is in modesty, not pride, that I stand here as one of the greatest world figures, representing all that is good on this perishable earth, to appeal for a new way.
Frank McDonald/Tony Blair
 
It was many, many years ago that our beautiful founders created this great nation for Americans to love deeply. It’s been 400 years, or 700 years. That’s the information I was given.