Like most human beings, we Americans love to dream the dream of being at peace. The sense of stability and safety that peacetime brings is a true blessing. It allows us to imagine that, at least for the moment, we are exempt from the Darwinian struggle for life and legacy that consumes most of creation.

While peace may equate to joy, it is not a state that has ever been either commonplace or easy to achieve. Children should be at peace because their parents sweat and sacrifice to provide for and protect them. A traditional housewife and mother might experience a form of peace because her husband exerts himself outside of the home to provide for all of the household’s needs.

In a nation that has law, order, trust, and common values, civilians can feel at peace because their lives, liberties, and property are under the protection of the military from foreign threats and the police from domestic threats.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

George Orwell

The United States, along with most of the English-speaking world, has for most of its history been constituted in such a way as to provide maximal peace for most of its people for the vast majority of the time. Traditionally, we who hold Anglo-Saxon values police our own words and actions sufficiently to avoid the need for meddlesome laws and intrusive gendarmes.

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However, this high standard state of peacetime is a product exclusively of Judeo-Christian Western Civilization. As Europeans engaged in ongoing warfare with one another, they developed the systems of Embassies and of diplomacy which brought to their world the first long-term states of ongoing peace. War has since become a unique state of affairs, self-evidently different from peace, when all the restraints of civil life could be overridden in order to achieve victory over a deadly foe.

Human affairs cannot long exist under such conditions of anarchy and violence. Europeans took ideas of peace treaties from times long before Europe emerged as a unique society. As far back as Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II’s peace treaty with the Hittites after the Battle of Kadesh in 1259 BC, government have parlayed the end of hostilities with one another.

However, these early agreements only limited the scale of war to that of organized criminal activity. In the 1500s and 1600s, Europeans refined the rules that distinguished wartime from peacetime, and produced legal and orderly relations between nations that did not involve persistent cross-border crime and low-grade raiding and terror.

In doing so, European nations created among the world’s first genuine states of peace. Certainly after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the horrors of the Thirty Years War, Europeans lived in a binary world order of either peacetime or wartime.

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This high order of peaceable relations unmarred by persistent low levels of international violence was never the norm outside of the Western world. In the Islamic Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia civilizations shared borders with savages. Barbarians never truly make peace; there was always kidnapping, rape, theft, and murder conducted on a tribal scale.

As non-Western societies came into routine contact, there tended to be levels of mutual interference that we in the West would consider to be acts of war. Understanding this is key to understanding the behavior of many of America’s foes on today’s world stage; particularly the Chinese Communist Party.

The last time that the West had to contend with a non-Christian and non-Western major power opponent, the Ottoman Turks were besieging Vienna in 1683 until Poland’s Winged Hussars arrived to send the Turks back to Constantinople. Before that, it was also the Ottomans trying to take Vienna in 1529, and before that it was the Mongol Empire beating the Hungarians at the
Battle of the Sajo River in 1241.

Americans, really Westerners around the world, are simply not used to dealing with opponents who do not follow Western norms. Even during both World Wars and the Cold War, our opponents instinctively recognized the differences between a state of peace and a state of open warfare. Certainly, the National Socialists and Soviet Communists did not always adhere to these distinctions, but they did understand when they were crossing such a line.

This is absolutely not true of America and the West’s enemies today. The Chinese Communist Party, and its catspaws in North Korea, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, just to name a few, accept no standard of peacetime restraint.

The Islamist terrorists in Beijing’s orbit have considered themselves to be at war with the United States since the US intervention to protect Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. So this also is with the Iranians and with Communist Revolutionaries across the world, including so-called Antifa Terrorists here in the United States.

The Chinese Communist Party is currently waging a low grade war with the United States. They are behind the mass-smuggling of fentanyl into the United States, have been caught building massive SIM farms here in order to blank out our electrical power and communications systems, and are funding every bad actor around the world. Their funds stream through groups all across the West which bring discord to levels that could result in Civil Wars. They are constantly attacking our internet networks.

China’s Communists are at war with us. That means, whether we recognize it or not, we are at war with them. Let us not repeat the mistaken dreams of peace of 12/06/1941 or 9/10/2001. Let us not follow the ostrich in stubbornly refusing to take our heads out of the sand and face this harsh reality. We are at war with the Chinese Communist Party. Let us not wait until they strike us with massive ordinance as they cross Taiwan Strait to acknowledge this!

LEWISTON, Idaho — The Idaho State Police has extended the application deadline for its next trooper training academy as the agency continues to address staffing needs, particularly in District 1 (Coeur d’Alene) and District 2 (Lewiston).

The shortage of troopers in North Central Idaho has required other districts to fill shifts and provide coverage when needed. To strengthen staffing statewide, ISP is extending the deadline for applicants interested in serving their communities. The new deadline to apply is Oct. 17, 2025, and the next training academy begins in January 2026.

“If you have a desire to serve and make Idaho safer, we want you on our team. There’s no better time to step up, turn your passion for your community into your profession, and help uphold the safety and integrity Idahoans expect,” Captain Mike Mooney said.

The hiring process includes a written exam, physical fitness test, oral interview, background investigation, and medical and psychological evaluations. Qualified applicants must:

• Be U.S. citizens
• Be at least 21 years old
• Hold a high school diploma or GED equivalent
• Possess or be eligible for an Idaho driver’s license
• Successfully complete all required background checks

Recruits who successfully complete all required steps will be paid employees during the 22-week training academy, which begins in January in Meridian. To apply to become an ISP trooper, visit statecareers.idaho.gov/jobs/16400897-idaho-state-police-trooper.

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Truthfulness is one of the most fundamental qualities of human character, yet in today’s society it often seems blurred, compromised, or even dismissed as outdated.

I was recently reading an article by Charles Stanley in which he wrote about ‘Truth’ and the fundamental relevance in our everyday lives. That article inspired me to dissect this very human challenge and how it affects us.

It is my opinion that we live in a culture where words like “spin,” “misrepresentation,” “falsehood,” or “alternative facts” are treated as softer substitutes for what they truly are— lies.

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Why is it so difficult to speak the truth, especially when it causes discomfort or pain?

It is my belief that part of the reason is fear. We fear rejection, loss of reputation, or the conflict that truth might bring. When truth is absent, all is distorted. We cannot claim to be honest while only half-truths are present and very strategic omissions are obvious.

There is relativism, a notion that treats ‘truth’ as fluid, being shaped by an individual’s perspective. What maybe ‘true for you’ may not be ‘true for me’. This notion allows for the ‘drifting’ based on opinion and lacks any fixed compass of clarity.  It is my opinion that justice, relationships, and freedom cannot flourish when the ‘comfort of the moment’ is our truth.

The impulse to lie becomes apparent at an early age. We discover very early that twisting or embellishing the truth may help us avoid pain or punishment. I was ‘caught’ numerous times growing up, lying to my parents just to avoid getting into trouble.

 This impulse is probably instinctive and according to Scripture, is part of our nature. Truthfulness then must be intentional on our part and we should resist the easy path of deception.

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Throughout history, humanity has affirmed that truth is the cornerstone of civilization.

From Scripture and the Commandment against bearing false witness, to the Declaration of Independence’s claim that “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” to our own U.S. Constitution and Federalist Papers published in 1787, assumed that citizens must discern and pursue truth through honest debate, not manipulation. Plato’s writings from the 4th century BC fostered the relentless pursuit of truth through dialogue, reason, and inquiry.

These enduring documents and other history, remind us that truth is not a passing preference but a permanent foundation for our country and society.

At its core, truthfulness is not only about the words we speak but also about the values we hold. Self-examination becomes crucial.  Should or do I alter the truth when it seems convenient? Do I feel threatened by the truth when it challenges me? Do I justify a lie if it does not appear to harm anyone?

These are uncomfortable questions, but they reveal much about how we actually value truth. If we feel unsettled after telling a lie, or if we feel betrayed when someone lies to us, then we already know, deep down, the moral weight of dishonesty.

Dishonesty damages relationships. Without truth, families falter. The same holds true in public life. When politicians replace truth with vague phrases like “misrepresentation” or “inaccuracies,” they are still lying. When leaders lie, the framework of society erodes because citizens no longer know whom to trust.

Truth should be based on reality.  Reality does not bend to convenience. A business that hides losses will collapse. A marriage built on lies cannot endure. A government that deceives its citizens will ultimately face distrust. To deny reality is to live in illusion, and illusions always crumble.

It is my opinion that we must recognize that truth is not an external weapon to be wielded against others, but an internal discipline to be cultivated within ourselves. Living truthfully requires wisdom to distinguish what is real from what is false, strength to resist the temptation to reshape reality for personal gain, and courage to speak openly even when honesty may cost us comfort, approval, or ease.

Wisdom, strength, and courage are the foundations for integrity.

Very soon we will have another election here in Kootenai County. Candidates will project their message woven into promises. As citizens we will need to carefully dissect the messages and question whether their statements and promises align with their conscience.

When we know that those around us are truthful, when politicians are truthful, we will act with confidence. The personal reward of truthfulness is freedom.

I believe that truthfulness is not just another virtue but should be the bedrock of character. Families, communities, and nations cannot flourish when truth is negotiable and relativism is the norm.  The challenge before you and I, is to embody truth as a way of life, not only when convenient, but always.