Posted: 2/7/2016:
Today is Pearl Harbor Day: "Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, (77) years ago, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II." - History.com 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded during the Pearl Harbor attack. - Wikipedia Unlike German-Americans and Italian-Americans, a massive round-up of Japanese-Americans, between 110,000 and 120,000 children, women, and men, primarily in California and on the West Coast, were held in relocation/intenment camps throughout World War II. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. - various sources including Wikipedia (12/7/18) German and Italian nationals, citizens of those countries, as well as Japanese nationals were interned for the war. Please give to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association: 4105 Naomi Drive/ Louisville, Kentucky, 40219/ pearlharborsurivorsonline.org
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The Cop: “As long as memory lingers like the scent of a passing woman and as long as the mind exists stubbornly before the grave, the past is not dead. While old joys retreat in small smiles on black nights, the horror of loss and suffering carries a lash of pain in every instance of recall. Sometimes, we are hardly more than what we’ve suffered. “At unchosen times, the slender, middle-aged man walks again down those dank rotting stairs, deep into a cellar nightmare. His memory inhales the ripe and cloying smell of death. His eyes see the broken and bloody little body as it lay lifeless in extinguished innocence. His heart rages over and over again for the child in the school girl’s uniform, the little girl who had been raped, hanged and stabbed in the heart, fourteen times, by the man she lovingly called Uncle Hank. “The aging man will mourn for the little girl until his knowledge of the past in ended by his death. He is defined by this murder. He carries the burden of knowledge that such takers of life and dreams, such monsters like the creature who killed 10-year-old Nicolletta Concerta, walk the earth and look just as our neighbors do. This knowledge is a demon from Pandora’s Box. In some who are infected by this demon, all faith in mankind is lost. “But in this man, the opposite occurred. His tenacious belief in the law and order was only reaffirmed. His need to resist and to prevent heinous acts grew stronger. “Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood began his adult life as an idealistic cop and he clings to his order like a Christian before the lions. Through the slime, sleaze, horror, despair and violence of 750 homicide cases, Philly Mike has kept his faith. “For the chief, there must be law and order. Without order there is chaos. In chaos, there is Uncle Hank. “To Chitwood, the thin blue line is a human barricade against anarchy. While it bends and sometimes merges with disorder, it is real, identifiable and absolutely necessary. For the chief, it is something to believe in and to fight for. “After the murder of Nicoletta, the near-40 Chitwood, weary but hoping to change the direction of his life, left the streets of Philly. He want to school, he studied and worked hard. The most decorated cop in the history of Philadelphia wanted to charter the course of events in the world around him, not just to react to them. He became a police chief. “Gone now are the days or living a brutal inner-city life that only cops and street folks really know and understand. A life of mundane violence, where the throats of struggling souls are cut for breathing somebody else’s air. Gone is the familiar stink of urine in tenement staircases mixed with street anger so thick it rises from the garbage-strewn pavement like an ocean fog. Gone is the frequent feeling of the air raising on the nape of the neck, spurred by the gut-knotted fear and excitement of surviving another battle. “Gone, too, is the strength and righteousness of youth. “But there is power in age. There is purpose in being a police chief: for Philly Mike, it’s a sculptor’s work in creating order. “Chitwood has been Portland’s head cop for eight years now. He plays gold on non-urinated grass at fancy country clubs. He holds court with the press, often manipulating the local scribes like checker pieces in a county home. He’s a man of respect. He’s the boss. When he goes to war now, he can jab first and methodically pick his target before he throws the big right-hand. “So much has changed but it’s never enough. “The ghost of the little Concerta girl still festers in Chitwood’s soul. Her stolen and mangled youth and her terror stricken last few minutes of life torment Chitwood religiously like the eagle that comes to eat the heart of (Prometheus) anew, daily. “Chitwood knows that Hank Fahey, Nicoletta’s killer, still breathes on Pennsylvania’s Death Row”… - Kevin O’Kendley/ Chief of Police Magazine, Miami (Police Chief Magazine)/ 1996 “The current record-holder for longest death row resident is Henry Fahy, 58, the Kensington junk man convicted in the 1981 rape and murder of his 12-year-old neighbor, Nicolette ‘Nicky’ Caserta.” - Joe Slobodzian/ Philadelphia Inquirer/ posted: 1-6-16 Henry P. Fahy, 61, sentenced in 1983, is listed on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, “Persons Sentenced to Execution in Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2018.” Information, names, and spellings in The Cop were recorded in interview with Mike Chitwood. A Good Cop makes The Job noble.
Please give to the Police Protective Fund: P.O. Box 1084/ Schenectady, New York, New York 72301/ 877-343-2477 Contraceptives for men:
“The rubbers may be hitting the road if a new gel for men proves effective preventing pregnancies. “The national Institutes of Health is funding an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the contraceptive gel, which could replace condoms and vasectomies.” - Carl Campanile/ New York Post/ 11-29 If a contraceptive that is cheap, effective, if a Pill becomes available for men, our birthrate, both in the U.S. and worldwide, would fall. If the burden of the most effective contraceptives are shared by both sexes, the birthrate would fall. If there was a Pill for men when I first got married, my ex-wife would have divorced me sooner than she did. However, she tricked me twice, and we had children. Our kids changed my life for the better, and I know my ex-wife was right. Nevertheless, if left to my own ignorance, fears, perspective on the cruelties of life, I would have never been a faddah. But, life can be beautiful, good, Homeric -- When our youngest, our son, started wiping his own tush, I experienced one of the best days of my life. (12-6) The Birth of Her Caitness, in the short story section of this website, deals with our oldest child's birth: "It was Sister Philomena that gave me some of the inside dope on childbirth. For instance (you’ll never believe this one), she told me that Uterus isn’t a planet in our solar system Uranus is. Uranus? I howled at that and so did the nuns. I can’t even write Uranus with a straight face: "Ha ha. "Uranus? C’mon." Please give to The Bridge Medical Diabetes Medical Center: 5938 U.S. 93 South/ Whitefish, Montana 59937/ 406-863-9300 Happy Hanukkah: December 2 to December 10 (Google)...
"Every year, Hanukkah begins on (the) 25th day of Kislev, a month in the Hebrew calendar." - USA Today. This is the Year 5779 in the Hebrew calendar. - Google posted: 12/12/2017: Happy Chanukkah: Chanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is the celebration of the victory of the Maccabees (Jewish guerrillas) over the Seleucids, a remainder of Alexander the Great’s (Macedonian/Greek Army) in Judea, (some) Syrians, and some offbeat Hebrews. The Maccabees sent the Seleucids down the beach, and recaptured the temple in Jerusalem. Of (the) lamp oil in the temple that was kosher, there was enough for a single night of celebration, but God made the oil last for eight nights. A candle is lit for each of the eight nights during Chanukkah. The Hanukkiah holds nine candles, “eight prongs with a large prong, known as a shamash, in the middle. The shamash is used to light one extra candle each night for the eight days.” - Independent Chanukkah starts tonight at sundown and ends at sundown on December (10th). Please give to the Jewish World Service: 45 West 36th Street, 11th Floor/ New York, New York 10018/ 212-792-2900 |
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, ksokendley@outlook.com. 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 |