Category Archives: America

Why Not A Jubilee?

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

There’s nothing that highlights the coming financial debacle like the news I read this morning: Costa Rica is considering open-pit gold mining and deep sea fracking to cover the epic, yawning, gaping hole in their finances. Um, say what??? Now, … Continue reading →

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The Suicide of California

Posted on September 26, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Civilizations fail, and then they fall. That is the natural order of things. They fail because their ideas buckle; their discipline withers away; their common culture becomes brittle – an adhesive which no longer binds. Then they fall, a crash … Continue reading →

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On 9/11

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Remains true, so long as we remain optimistic: “We are sometimes naïve in our goodness – Americans are. It’s part of the nature of our life lived in a free society; part of our ‘social contract’ in which we each … Continue reading →

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Nature and Nature’s God

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

It seems to me ironic that the last four years of socialist rage were finally met by pandemic. We who work in the field of peace know that it is violence more than anything else that begets more violence, in … Continue reading →

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Old Yeller

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

It’s time we return to that which is good and true. We need to abandon the nonsense, and quick, lest we are swept away into the turbulent waters of politics and victimization and forget that which made us. Things that … Continue reading →

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Our Changing World

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

While my little boy plays water-guns, builds Lego sets, learns to type and do extra-math and watches Alvin and the Chipmunks, the world in which he will live is being formed — and in fast forward. So far, the attempts … Continue reading →

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Born Defeated

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

“I want to tell you that you did not win, as you believe, because despite having been born defeated, I still dreamed.” And with those words I ended my first play. Because there is nothing wrong with being defeated, as … Continue reading →

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The End Of It All

Posted on June 27, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

An unsteady stillness has fallen across the once-hallowed battlefields. The blazing has not stopped, but for the absence of its most-prominent belligerent it might even feel like the glory days of yesteryear when medals were earned and careers made in … Continue reading →

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After COVID-19

Posted on June 13, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Monumental moments in history often follow great conflagrations. Four-hundred years ago Europe, exhausted of her wars, and seeking to put an end to the 30 years war which was only the latest in the conflicts which had stretched back forever … Continue reading →

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The Return of Pessimism

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

During the heady days of hubris which now seem so long ago but in reality were only a few months back, I was often accused of pessimism. The world, as I saw it, was not headed to a good place. … Continue reading →

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