The whole day I've been bombarded by repetitions of the simple English phrase, 'that one'. It is a phrase which refers to something which is not 'this one', which is not with us, which is not ours, which is not near to us. But somehow, my brain turned a corner and I started hearing something else...
You see, there is a single document that contains exactly thirteen instances of the word 'that'. It was a speech crafted in the mind and heart of one of the most celebrated speakers of the American dream. It was given by an tall, ungainly but strangely likeable man, a man from the state of Illinois, quite a number of years ago.
I think most, if not all, of us gathered here today know that speech. And if we don't know it by heart, we know it in essence because it is a truth that digs deep into the heart of America, turns over the soil, plants a seed, and grows a mighty tree of life for future generations.
Here's the speech. (Yeah, see, y'all knew it!)
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. 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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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.
When you read or have the privilege to hear a speech like this, you realise that 'that one' is not always a phrase that means 'the other one', 'the one that is not ours' and suchlike. You realise that a master craftsman from Illinois used it to point the way, clause by clause and powerful line by line.
It is an honor, Senator Obama, to be called 'that one' — because of speeches like this. We will always remember that nation, that war, that field, that cause, that man from Illinois. Yes, that one.