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Happy Kwanzaa.
Please support the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama, 36104/ 888-414-7752
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Merry Christmas. "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me." – Reverend Martin Niemoller A hero can be a migratory cheer of the heart just before being shot down in flight by second thoughts, a hero one day a dead duck the next…
Though surrounded by an internal landscape of devastation, insulation from the pain of lost dreams, a battered though unbeaten fighter will hold on to a pin prick of hope. In that gray Limbo, a spark of hope is the only light to read by. Inside most cynics is a failed idealist just waiting to rise from the ashes, reborn. Cynicism is a self-devouring cage, a prison cell that creates nothing but self-doubt, which has no horizons only self-imposed limitations, a flat and scorched earth. Idealism newly born as gossamer concrete, fragile and tenuous, can grow through strength of character, can morph into foundations of hope, and change, and invention, and salvation: idealism can be a dogged, taciturn, and adventurous pursuit of life -- human being by human being -- building a future where there was none. Whatever don’t kill ya only makes you stronger -- horse shit! -- it can also leave you crazy or married. Please give to Expanding Opportunities 84 Payson-Brooks, ME 04921/ P.O. Box 12184, Nakuru, Kenya, 0721-275791 Happy Chanukah.
Please support UNICEF, 18 Tremont Street, Suite 820, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108/ 617-266-7534/ [email protected] Agree with President's Obama's Executive Order or not:
Five million illegals now have a right to exist in this country; to take this legal right away from five million children, women, and men, might prove socially problematic, if not illegal. added 10/29/16: President Obama's executive order was overturned in court... According to the people at Weebly this website has 212,000 Likes. Thank you. Please give to the Children's Leukemia Research Center, 585 Stewart Avenue, Suite 18, Garden City, New York, 11530/ 516-22-0457 Pay police a fair wage to serve and protect our people, to bust the villains regardless of race, creed, color, socio-economic status or legal privilege. Put simpatico professionals -- courage, heart, character -- in what specific places and areas they are most needed; trained officers that don’t see the citizens of any neighborhood as the enemy. Cops that believe it is their mission to spare people from what fear they can, what hardship they might, police officers that understand justice as necessary for humane individual and familial survival and fundamental to a free society: men and women that believe in the rule of law.
There are good people On The Job, I'm related to some of them. The deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown were unnecessary -- wrong -- tragic for those that love them... Please give to the National Urban League, 120 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York, 10005/ 212-558-5300 Please give to the Police Protective Fund, P.O. Box 1084, Schenectady, New York, 72301/ 877-343-2477 The market place of ideas and ideals is exclusionary only in a society of suicides: in a healthy and dynamic free society any human being’s ideas have both intrinsic and free market value; the former is of immense worth, sanctified within a culture of liberty, freedom, and equality, and the latter is of viable or active worth, each supportive of the other. While the first goes to the soul of a nation the other is a social driving force of pragmatic and creative survival.
Please support the First Amendment Museum at 184 State Street, Portland, Maine, 04101. Happy belated Thanksgiving. I've had a few problems getting on this site and couldn't on Thanksgiving.
Following are excerpts from my novel Danny Boy which is finished and looking for an agent smarter than I am: "Over the years a slim finger of the river diverted through the half-mile cave and drawled from the lips of the tunnel like spittle from a stoke victim. In the flaming, bright day the obsidian maw of the shaft lurked obscenely on the other side of the ravine. In a hooded fissure on the other side of the long, light-less tunnel was where they'd found the rotting body of a dead man: an outcast who died unnoticed." "Uncomfortably aware that he looked like a condemned building, unshaven and hung over -- at least his flannels and khakis were mended -- Charlie talked gently to the little boy: 'See your head’s flattened where you bumped it.' He pointed to the back of the kid’s head. 'You gotta make a fist -- put your thumb out -- blow into it.' Charlie demonstrated with a thumb sticking out, blew into it with his cheeks expanding like a bag of apples. It was his best Louis Armstrong impression -- C.J. steered the man-in-a-hurry, pulled him toward the scene of the crime, and said roughly, 'I’ll tell security I just saw you assault a little kid. Go apologize.' The guy’s lips flattened into a straight line, his eyes narrowed, but after looking around and getting a good look at C.J. he gave in. The boy stopped crying; it took all of his energy and concentration to blow into his thumb and he was really working at it. 'Good job buddy,' Charlie told the kid. 'That popped your head back out. Made it round again. Now your brain will okay.' The five-year-old smiled shyly. C.J. smiled at the man-in-a-hurry." Please give to Volunteers of America, 1660 Duke St., Alexandria, VA, 22314, 703-341-5000, 800-899-0089. |
A carbuncle is a roiled mass of skin or a beautiful gem. The incredible gem is pictured in the logo below and at the bottom of the short story section...
Kevin O'Kendley is the owner of Carbuncle Moon, and the author of all original material -- cartoons, blogs, shorts, essays, articles -- on the website (there has been a very limited editorial input in some of my work). All quoted sources are noted. I am responsible for all posts. The only blogs not time-dated are those advertising nonprofits. All nonprofits are vetted, investigated, though after the summer of 2018 my vetting has lapsed: (6/1/21).
Kevin O'Kendley: P.O. Box 172, Winterport, Maine, 04496, and 200 P Street, A-32, Sacramento, California, 95814, [email protected]. Technical help is provided by an evolving computer genius, my son, Conor O'Kendley: A good kid with a great heart who can be reached at P.O. Box 172, Winterport, Maine, 04496. (Conor is in the Navy now, a swabby) Photography provided by a visual artist, my daughter, Caitlin O'Kendley: a young woman with a beautiful soul. (Caitlin is in college now, a media-journalism student) If your nonprofit is advertised on this site and you wish to have it removed please contact me at the above listed snail-mail or email address or use the contact form on the website. If you download a blog, cartoon, a short story -- or for any other reason -- and wish to donate $ to this site, its author and technical support personnel, please send donations to above listed addresses payable to Kevin O'Kendley. My family and I could use the dinero. All cartoons, blogs, and short stories are for sale. Categories |
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