[Vision2020] Shalom, Phil Nisbet!

[joekc at adelphia.net]

I just searched through some old e-mails and I found the first off-list exchange I had with Phil. The exchange was pretty heated, following an even more heated exchange on Vision 2020. At one point, though, Phil simply apologized and I wrote back: 

"... though I don't always agree with your postings, I usually enjoy reading them since your views are so hard to categorize. Not the usual liberal or conservative stuff we're accustomed to. I think that that alone makes you a tremendous asset to the community. Hope we get a chance to meet!"

We did get to meet a few weeks later at a function at Moscow High School when Phil introduced himself to me. We talked a lot about getting a beer together with Joan and Carl: "the Philosopher King, the geologist poet, the writer, and The Voice of Moscow, AKA Angelina's Toy Boy, out on the town," as Carl put it. 

Things came up, our original meeting was postponed, and I never did get a chance to have that beer. Damn, do I wish I had that beer! But I did get a chance to tell him how I felt about him and about how important I thought he was to all of us. In times of tragedy, it is easy to exaggerate. But I feel pretty confident that I am unlikely to meet another Jewish-libertarian-geologist-poet living in Idaho -- not one with Phil Nisbet's powers of knowledge, reasoning, and writing, at least.

My heart goes out to Phil’s sons, family, and close friends.

Best, Joe Campbell