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Is US empire doomed to crumble?

History does not whisper. It warns. Empires do not collapse because of a single moment of weakness. They erode from within, slowly hollowed out by overreach, moral ambiguity and the false belief that their power exempts them from consequence. The question before us is not whether America is strong. It is whether we are wise enough to endure the burden that comes with being the world's lone superpower. Scores of empires have come before us. Each one believed itself indispensable. Each one believed its reach was justified. And each one eventually fell, often not at the hands of foreign ...

Artemis II inspires unity

National confidence, unfortunately, is in short supply these days. In this season of springtime renewal, Americans would do well to look up – literally. Artemis II, NASA's first meaningful manned space mission in over a half-century, has taken the nation by storm this month. In so doing, it has provided a timely reminder of what a great nation, acting with confidence and clarity of purpose, can still achieve. Our politics are fractured, our institutions mistrusted, and our birth and marriage rates have plummeted. Hope once sprang eternal, but today's zeitgeist is characterized by ...

39 days: too much or not enough?

Will the U.S.-Iran war turn out to have been the 39-day war, following the locution of the 12-day Israel-Iran war of June 2025? The markets, as this is written, seem to think so. Asian stock markets were up Wednesday morning after President Donald Trump's ceasefire announcement and, hours later, so were European markets. U.S. markets had rebounded from initial losses on Tuesday. The political marketplace was less steady. "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump posted on Truth Social at 8:06 a.m. EDT Tuesday. It didn't quite happen. At 6:32 p.m. ...

Reflections on special message

Easter and Holy Week celebrations have come and gone this year, and since Easter fell on April 5, the first Sunday of this month, it seems to have really snuck up on us. This probably wasn't the case for those who had already planned to set aside extra cash for the holiday. The National Retail Federation reported that Americans were projected to spend "a record $24.9 billion on baskets." That's a lot of Peeps, jellybean eggs and chocolate bunnies. With this increase in spending, up 4% from last year, CBC News dubbed Easter the "spring Christmas," which can no doubt bring on ...

Attention is your greatest power

Watching the Artemis II space flight has filled my days with awe and wonder. From pilot Victor Glover's poignant Easter message and mission specialist Christina Koch's "space plumber" story to the crew naming a moon crater for commander Reid Wiseman's late wife. Artemis II really shows us what humanity is capable of. It all serves as a great reminder that on any given day, we simultaneously exist in a world of tragedy and wonder. The good news is that we get to choose what we give our energy and attention to. It doesn't mean that we bury our heads in the sand; it means we ...

Illusion of strength: America’s fragile economy

There is a difference between confidence and comfort, between projecting strength and actually possessing it. In today's American economy, that difference is becoming harder to ignore. President Donald Trump speaks often of resilience, growth and dominance. The language is bold, the tone unwavering. But beneath that optimism lies a more fragile reality, one that millions of Americans feel every day, even if it is not always acknowledged from the podium. An economy is not measured by its headlines. It is measured by its households. And across this country, the warning ...