Author: W.D. Ehrhart - The New Hampshire Gazette

A Poet in Palestine

December 1, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

By W.D. Ehrhart Back in the spring of 2022, I wrote an essay titled “A Farewell to Arms” about a young Palestinian poet named Mosab Abu Toha who had just published a book called Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights, 2022). Mosab is a remarkable young man. Still in his very early 30s, he is married and the father of three children. He was a visiting poet at Harvard University in 2019-20 (during which time his youngest son was born, thus making Mostafa a U.S. citizen); founded the Edward Said Library, the first English-language public library in Gaza; and earned an …

A Gordian Knot

November 3, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

by W.D. Ehrhart I was among a small unit of U.S. Marines who entered Hue City, Vietnam, on January 31st, 1968, at the beginning of what turned out to be the Tet Offensive. The city had been secretly occupied by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces (VC/NVA), and it took us nearly a month to drive them out. By the time we were done, the city was largely in ruins. A year and a half later, and immediately after public revelation of the massacre of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by units of the U.S. Americal Division at a place known as My Lai, …

Is Peace Possible?

October 20, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

by W.D. Ehrhart The October attack on Israel by Hamas came as a shocking surprise and will have major repercussions no one can yet foresee. It reminds me of the Vietnamese Tet Offense in January 1968. Just as Israel has been caught off guard, so too had the U.S. The big difference is that the Tet Offensive took place on Vietnamese soil, not American. This attack is against Israel itself. And one can hardly imagine a more ruthless or brutal attack. I gather that Hamas fighters descended from the air on a rock concert largely attended by young people, indiscriminately shooting and killing unarmed civilians, …

Looking on the Bright Side

October 6, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

by W.D. Ehrhart I’ve just had a new experience. For the first time since I began writing essays for the New Hampshire Gazette, I finally submitted one so unrelievedly pessimistic that our Alleged Editor rejected it, declining to inflict so bleak and hopeless an argument predicting the all-but-inevitable re-election of Dolt .45 next November with no way to avoid that outcome except through divine intervention. Well, fair enough. He’s not only the editor, but also the publisher and owner of the Gazette. He gets to print what he wants and not print what he doesn’t want. And he’s obligated to consider his readership’s sensibilities. Who …

I Really Hope I’m Wrong

September 22, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

W.D. Ehrhart, a 1966 graduate of Pennridge High School, with his wife, Anne, on his induction into the Pennridge Wall of Fame in 2003.

Reaping the Whirlwind

August 25, 2023 by W.D. Ehrhart

by W.D. Ehrhart This past weekend, my wife and I went down to Margate, New Jersey, for a friend’s birthday party. Driving on the Atlantic City Expressway, we passed a huge billboard that screamed: STOP OFFSHORE WIND. Below that, in somewhat smaller letters, it said: Never Experience the Jersey Shore the Same Way Again. Pictured was an array of wind turbines stretching from one edge of the billboard to the other. Together we marveled at the mentality that wants to preserve the scenic beauty of the seashore until the planet turns into a cosmic cinder and there’s no scenic beauty anywhere on the planet, or …