It has been a wonderful day of walking through history and of watching baseball. I’ve never been to Philadelphia before, and this short trip will stay in my mind for a long time.

Our hotel is attached to the airport, so the day began with a commuter train ride into the city. The national park area in old downtown has so much to see and to understand…we’ll just have to come back. I spent time visiting the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the US Mint, Benjamin Franklin’s gravesite, and just in general walking for about six hours.

The mindful part is this: first, just how perilously close the nation came to not becoming a nation. It took a remarkable series of events to win our independence. Secondly, just how fragile freedom is. One of the rangers quoted Franklin (and I’m loosely re-quoting): when asked what kind of government we should have Franklin answered, “a republic, if we can keep it.” The precious gift of a republican democracy faces pressures from both the left and the right, and deserves the greatest care in preserving it.

Enough politics, we move on to the sports desk. I met the travel group this afternoon and we went by bus to see Philadelphia take on the Milwaukee Brewers. Considering the Brewers once were the Seattle Mariners I had a vested interest, and it paid off…they won 5-3. It was a great game,and the rain held off until we were on the way back to the hotel.

At 9 tomorrow morning our bus driver takes us on to New York for an afternoon game, Mets vs White Sox. We’ll have the evening free, so I’ll have more to say tomorrow night.