The Rocketburg and Gettysburg Address

From chron.com by Fran Blinebury.

One score (wins) and six weeks ago, our Rockets brought forth on this continent, a new team, conceived in Intensity, and dedicated to the proposition that all NBA teams are not created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great winning streak, testing whether that team, or any team so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great hardwood floor of that winning streak. We have come to dedicate a portion of that hardwood floor as a final resting place for all of the previous losses and playoff failures of T-Mac, for the broken bones of Yao Ming, and for those who gave their careers in Rockets' red uniforms so that one day this streak might live. It is fitting and proper that we do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we can not consecrate, we can not hallow - this floor of basketball dreams. The hustling men (Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry), living and of dead shooting percentages (Rafer Alston), have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what Dikembe Mutombo and teammates did here. It is for us the watching - and them, still playing - rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who have made clutch jump shots and played tough defense and made the unsung Shane Battier plays thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for the players to be dedicated to the great task remaining before them on the regular season schedule - that from these once-dead Rockets (15-17 on Jan. 2) we take increased devotion to the cause for which they have given their last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these once-dead Rockets shall not have died in Toronto and Philadelphia in vain - that this streaking, winning, white-hot team, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom from playoff failure - and that championship basketball of the people, by the people, for the people of Houston, shall not perish from the earth.

----- Abraham Dunkin, March 12, 2008

:)

and the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address.

Four score 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.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 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 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.

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