ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank the following:
BILL BAILIE for his interest, his comments, and the long-term loan of numerous books, articles and maps on matters military, geographic, geopolitical, and geologic—information sources I found enormously helpful.
JIM BAEN, who, after reading the first draft of early chapters, made a criticism of central importance in developing subsequent chapters and drafts.
EVERETT KYTONEN, for important reference works and for his encouragement when this book was only a concept.
Father JAMES CONNOR and Father RICHARD JUZIX, for helping this non-Catholic keep his fictional priest realistic, and in general for their interest and friendship.
DR. RICHARD HUMPHREYS, M.D., for his advice on story matters medical.
THE REFERENCE PERSONNEL at the Spokane Main Library for their very frequent and unfailingly cheerful help, in person and over the phone. They are real professionals, and I love 'em!
And GAIL, who voluntarily read and commented on each draft, including the roughest, and who never once complained when the reference books overflowed my office to pile up on the kitchen table, occupying it for months and threatening to tip it over backward. I love her too.
Several others, specialists in different fields, critiqued pieces of this and made helpful suggestions and comments, but preferred not to be acknowledged in a book of which they had read only one or two chapters. They know who they are, and have had my personal thanks.
Numerous others provided specific information, most of them in reply to this stranger who called and asked questions over the phone. Their contributions are definitely appreciated.
Excerpt from The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, known as "The Declaration of Independence":
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed....
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism....
Quotation from a letter by John Emerich Dalberg, Lord Acton, written in 1887.
Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.