In honor of Mom’s 65th birthday, March 28, 1995

The Brooklyn Heights Address
By Dan Silverman and Jerry Silverman and Abraham Lincoln

Three score and five years ago,
Our grandparents brought forth to the Adolf family a new daughter,
Conceived in Paterson, and dedicated to the proposition that
Family, with the world, might yet forge unity.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether our family, or any family, can long endure.
We are met on a great occasion in Brooklyn Heights.
We have come to celebrate the birthday of that daughter,
As a heartfelt tribute for she
Who gives so much that our family might thrive.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot do justice to this joyous occasion.
This brave woman, struggling over the years,
Has herself created a quality of humanism
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 the inspiration that infuses our efforts,
It is for us, the children, rather,
To be dedicated here to preserving that spirit
Which she who we honor today continues to nobly advance –
That we here highly resolve
That this family shall undergo a new birth of humanity
And that family, of its members, by its members, for its members,
Shall not perish from this earth.