A very short pause
In April, I sold my house in Las Vegas and began the long drive eastward to Pennsylvania. The 3000+ mile journey took more than 3-1/2 weeks, serving as the vacation I have not had for the past fourteen years.
The journey provided much-needed healing. As much as I cherish some of the friendships I made in Las Vegas, the city with its unabated emphasis on entertainment did not encourage the peace that makes life good. Grateful for neighbors and colleagues who gave me a support network that permitted me to survive “the desert” - both physical and emotional. They are forever written on my heart.
I’ve landed now in Gettysburg. Made an offer on a house, offer accepted, now begins the fun paperwork. No announcements or change of address notices until it’s real.
Initially. my search centered on nearby York, since it is called the White Rose City, having been settled by Brits from the House of York. But the city felt off. Search shifted to Gettysburg.
After being reminded often of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, this place seems right, if not outright necessary, for the continuation of our White Rose work, and for the emphasis on resistance to tyranny and genocide in our era as well.
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.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
That is our goal as well. That is the unfinished business we are tasked with, this is the “last full measure of devotion” that characterized the deaths of United States soldiers in Gettysburg in 1863, as well as the deaths of Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Hans Leipelt, and Harald Dohrn, not to mention countless others who said their very loud no to Hitler, and were murdered for having done so.
Please accept our apologies for the silence during the cross-country drive. There will likely be another 6 - 8 weeks until we’re settled in Pennsylvania with office and resources readily available.
Once we are reestablished, we will give all subscribers free and full subscriptions for three times the amount of time we’ve missed - i.e., if two months, then six months free - plus a discount for 50% off the first $100 of materials purchased from Exclamation! Publishers. I personally appreciate your patience and understanding.
Anyone who has purchased digital books, that is still coming, not forgotten, but it will require office set up and resources at hand. Thank you, thank you!