To live out ones truths is the very essence of freedom. Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom.

Looking back through the lens of history, this quote doesn't make the "great" Lincoln look all that good. Maybe he doesn't deserve a Memorial. Soviets thought Stalin was a great leader, or least they were taught to believe that in their schools. Maybe our childern are also being spoon fed lies?

This quote is written in the same style as Pastor Martin Niemoeller's quote

Those of you who suspect this quote has had key elements conveniently removed are right. He wasn't talking about the government, he was talking about the breakdown of families and communities. Here's the full missing piece: "That is, when we set up this country, abuse of people by Government was a big problem. So if you read the Constitution, it's rooted in the desire to limit the ability of—Government's ability to mess with you, because that was a huge problem. It can still be a huge problem. But it assumed that people would basically be raised in coherent families, in coherent communities, and they would work for the common good, as well as for the individual welfare. What's happened in America today is too many people live in areas where there's no family structure, no community structure, and no work structure. And so there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it." Just another typical distortion from the Clinton-haters who brought you this war in Iraq...