By Harrison Hartley
My brother and sister-in-law are gearing up for the giant “Flea Market” at Sparks, Kansas, again: a kind of annual hybrid swap-meet/garage sale with overtones of a three-ring-circus where people from all over to converge on a tiny unincorporated village just north of Highway 36 between Saint Joseph (Missouri) and Highland (Kansas) to [...]
I first met Frank Flesher in the early 1990’s while I was still a member of the Saint Joseph Landmarks Commission. Frank had come before the group seeking funds for the repair of the old Central Police Station at 701 Messanie Street.
This is a remarkable building of great historical and architectural significance. It was designed [...]
By Harrison Hartley
Considering the approach of Thanksgiving a few days ago, I decided to ask a young friend (a handsome, worldly-wise chap of five), what he was particularly thankful for. At first, he wasn’t sure what I meant. “What you’re glad about; what makes you happy,” I explained, trying to get as [...]
By Harrison Hartley, Staff Writer
Veterans of wars or other combat actions in which the United States has been involved are often unconsciously characterized as a homogenous group of like-minded men (still, even in these enlightened times, mostly men). Obviously, this is not correct. Aside from the increasingly large number of women who serve [...]
By Harrison Hartley
I hope the title of this editorial shocks you, and I hope your response is: “NO! That can’t be right!” But it is. We have no constitutional right to vote; no national guarantee of that most basic and necessary thing; the very corner stone in the foundation of freedom. In [...]
(1922 – 2012)
By Harrison Hartley
Existentialism has various faults as a systematic philosophy, but as applied [...]
Hartley to Heart…By Harrison Hartley
I’m prejudiced. I admit it right up front. I don’t like casinos. Mine is not a matter of moral distaste, however, as it is with many people who object to gambling as “sinful.” I think gambling ranges from mildly amusing to devastatingly stupid, but in and of itself, I don’t [...]
By Harrison Hartley, Telegraph Columnist
Arson is one of the most difficult crimes to prosecute successfully, and certainly one of the most difficult to prevent. Technically, arson is the purposeful destruction of real property by fire and/or explosion. In the not too distant past, a necessary element of arson as a category of criminal [...]
Hartley to Heart, by Harrison Hartley
These are hard times for working Americans. The Middle Class has been shrinking, poverty has been on the rise, and the free-market-mythmakers have successfully sold us all a bill of goods that makes them richer by the second at our expense. Today, the top 1% of Americans takes more of [...]
Many years ago, before I had a driver’s license, I was brought up short while walking to work by the sound of children’s voices and hilarious giggles coming from behind a hedge. The voices were producing words like “poo-poo” and “pee-pee,” and these naughty pronouncements were invariably followed by absolute cascades of uncontrolled [...]
