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f ROM THE EDITOR Have we made a difference A braham Lincoln said in his speech at Gettysburg, "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here.'' Could I safely say that he was greatly mistaken? In fact, the world has long remembered what Lincoln said. His words live in school classrooms across the country as students utter " fourscore and sevt:n years ago .. . '' for the first time. Newspaper reporters at that time were puzzled about why the president had the audacity to give such a speech-such a short speech. It lasted only several minutes, compared to the other guy (I'm afraid I little noted nor long remembered his name) who talked for nearly two hours . Reporters whispered among themselves that Lincoln had really goofed this time. They didn't appreciate what they had been a witness to. Can you imagine being in the audience on a cold November day in 1863, listening to a two-hour speech? Far from concentrating on the words , no matter how eloquent, you would probably have been shuffling from one foot to the other to stave off the frostbite setting in, hoping it would end soon. Then up steps Lincoln. Were spectators groaning about listening to another lengthy speech? Perhaps the significance of his words were overshadowed by the I0 PLAY METER/May 1991 relief that it didn't take long! Maybe it was appreciated, even if it was for all the wrong reasons . However, 128 years later we look back and are awestruck by the beautiful sentiments of what he said. We encourage our kids to memorize the whole speech because it has such special meaning. We remember the devastation of the Civil War and can't help but feel for those that lived then . We are overwhelmed by what was accomplished. The coin-op industry is the accumulation of what happened in the past. Would things have been different if bingo machines had been welcomed with open arms? What would have happened if manufacturers hadn't been forced to offer operators something to take the place of the outlawed machines? We are standing in a time warp, struggling to exist in an ever-changing world, trying to hold on to the familiar but making decisions for the future . We will never be able to stay where we are or go back. We are here because of those who stood in our place years ago, wondering what lay ahead. Wearetheirfuture. Theirdecisions and actions brought the industry to where it is today. What would they have done differently had they known what we know now? Right now we are in a transition as we go from 45s to CDs and from gray area games to legalized video pokers. What we do now will have a profound effect on those coming after us. Will they wonder why we did some of the things we did? Of course they will. How could they not question certain things? They are the future we are molding now. This industry is not existing simply for today; it is surviving to nurture the industry that will be. It doesn't seem so long ago that 1984 was the very , very distant future . When I was in high school , even a wild imagination could not conjure up some of the technology available today . I don't know if those who had a say in how the industry progressed thought about the future. But whether they did or not, we will long remember what they did. Let's make the right decisions and look ahead so that one day the newcomers will look back and say to us, ' 'Thank you for making our industry a little better.'' D Valerie Cognevich Editor