With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. (Second Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln)

I went today to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. It is a good place to visit the day after a contentious and hard fought presidential election, a reminder that however divided America may presently be, there was a time our divisions actually led to civil war. Today is the day that our current Vice President Kamala Harris chose to deliver her concession speech to President-Elect Donald Trump. I told my family who is visiting here with me not to underestimate this great tradition in our Democratic Republic.

The concession speech is probably one of the hardest a candidate for high office will ever have to give. The current Vice President made hers with a particular charm and flair that has characterized her candidacy. I was so proud to listen to it from the television knowing that she was delivering it only 3 miles away from us at Howard University, a historically black college in our nation’s capital. The traditional promise of a bloodless transfer of power and a smooth transition to a new administration is not an automatic given. Many war-torn nations all over the world would do anything to hold such a tradition. Many have toppled one dictator after another with endless military coups only to see an even more corrupt leader take his place. Thank God for the bloodless revolution which results from frequent and secure elections!

Yes, our family made it to Washington, DC, and what a time we are having! The fact that all of us have gone back to homeschooling has given us the freedom to travel at a time when everyone else is engaged in business. Flights are relatively cheap, accommodations plentiful, and the multitude of FREE museums on the Washington Mall are relatively uninhabited. To top it all off, the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry.

Hope to report more later. Restless teenagers are calling simultaneously for more adventure and more rest…