Erin Rodewald

Countdown America 250 my year-long explore of America's founding. Visiting places like @TJMonticello @MountVernon @ColonialWill. Posting all the fun and thoughtful stuff on Writing for the Public Square blog. Join the fun! #America #independence #patriotic #americanhistory

@BenSasse Your hope is well placed, sir. You are in my prayers.

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

@Wisdom_HQ They turned away.

Freddie Freeman. That is all. #WorldSeries

Add to your #Saturdayreading stash It takes more than legends to fill the history books. How colonial tradesmen and ordinary people shaped America's founding #americanhistory #america250 #semiquincentennial wp.me/peQrjZ-lF

From its founding, the secret sauce of America's success has been the contributions of common citizens. How #Colonial Trades Shaped the American Revolution at the Writing for the Public Square blog: wp.me/peQrjZ-lF #americanhistory #semiquincentennial #huzzah

There's more to #History than dreamy nostalgia. Rick Atkinson offers an unvarnished and irresistible look at American history in The British are Coming. My review at Writing for the Public Square: wp.me/peQrjZ-kZ #semiquincentennial #liberty #huzzah @Peggynoonannyc

The school buses have started rolling again and kids are back in the classroom or will be soon. What was it like to be a student in the colonial era? Visit Writing for the Public Square's Facebook page for Fun Facts about America's Founding! facebook.com/EDRodewald #huzzah

Congress’s chief aim is not to advance major legislation but facilitate bargaining across factional and party lines. It's meant to be the focal point of political action in a system intended to sustain the political life of a diverse #Democracy. aei.org/op-eds/congres…

How did flags and banners become such a powerful part of the American story? Read "New Colors for a New Nation" by Rachel Rodewald on Writing for the Public Square blog wp.me/peQrjZ-jR #flags #americanhistory #semiquincentennial #huzzah

@KarlRove Appreciated the WSJ piece today! Countdown America 250 from Writing for the Public Square is one of those soulful projects of reflection you mention. Check it out!

What do you count as the crescendo of #AmericanHistory? In Revolutionary Summer by Joseph J. Ellis the focus is on 5 pivotal months in 1776. Read the review on the Writing for the Public Square blog: wp.me/peQrjZ-j4 #AmericanRevolution #FoundingFathers

What happens when you mix human nature and politics? Ask the #foundingfathers who gave us both the #declarationofindependence and political division! The latest in the Countdown America 250 series: America's Hopeful Vision Transcends Political Division wp.me/peQrjZ-io

Break out the popcorn, it's movie time! How many of these films, documentaries and shows about America's Founding have you seen? Find the curated list on the Writing for the Public Square blog wp.me/peQrjZ-hE #film #Filmmaking #America #Patriotic @KenBurns @battlefields

Reel Revolution: How Film and Documentaries Capture the Story of America's Founding writingforthepublicsquare.com/2025/07/15/ree…

We are lending Britain an iconic jewel of our shared history: the Bayeux Tapestry. This is the first time this national treasure will leave French soil. It marks an unprecedented cultural partnership between our two countries — a powerful symbol of our Entente amicale.

George Washington didn't have Venmo. He didn't even have a single currency or a Congress willing to appropriate sufficient funds to beat the British Army. How the #AmericanRevolution helped shape how we think about money. wp.me/peQrjZ-gr #America250

America's Money Problem-it's not what you think! writingforthepublicsquare.com/2025/07/08/ame…