Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
~~~Done to the Intonation of...No Milk Today; The Herman's Hermits
...no touch today, My love has gone away
Return I am to weigh, The loneliness of my Fate...
BACKDROP...
As explained by James McNeil who directs The Belle Center After-School Program, we will be conducting our 5th Annual KIDS FEST on August 27th starting at 12 noon and ending at 5:00PM. Any of the apprenticeship-training organizations that I have worked with, and would like to come out and be a part of this great community event, is invited. We will have tables set aside for respective organizations to place any literature that needs to be passed out to the children and adults who will be in attendance. There will be food, music, and lots of fun for both children and parents to enjoy. The Mayor and a few city and state officials will be in attendance as well and there will be media coverage for this event for the second straight year so we look forward to having as many organizations as possible at this years event. All are welcome. What we are trying to do with The Fest this year is integrate it to where the adult may find some relevance, hope, and promise for their work-world future and self-sustainability. And certainly, with what the various apprenticeship-training organizations are doing with their classroom and hands-on formats, lends itself well to this theme. Your willingness to be a part of this trade & vocational segment of the Kids Day Fest 27 August 2010, would be gratefully appreciated.
Summary of the: The 5th Annual Kids Fest!!!
As a Sunday's Child, Fridays prove to be so wonderfully productive. As the Operations Specialist for the Portal Program of the Belle Center, I was an integral component to the 5th Annual Kids Fest that was conducted 27 August, 2010. As in the past, James McNeil orchestrated this event, and it went off---as planned!! Because of the success of the 13 May 2010 Vocational Trade Fair at the Belle Center, James approached me to see about the possibility of providing a relevance for the adult. So this year we added a vocational/trade fair component to the theme. And it was well received.
The trade element was well integrated with other outreach vendors that were in attendance. The result was a wonderful full-house mix of health, safety, education, and vocational-trade representation.
This time around, the NGO's provided the higher visibility with the job-training theme. Danielle Kader did a yeoman's job representing On-The-Job Ministries. They run a thrift-store at 289 Grant Street, and manage a young-adult-manned soap-production operation that presently exists at the former Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on Fourteenth Street.
Marianna Banas was demonstrating C P R, and encouraging enrollment for training as an E M T with Rural-Metro Medical Services at 481 William Gaiter Parkway.
The ever-present, always-accessible Gary Bernardo of the NYS Laborers Union was manning the lead-table and had a steady stream of inquiries all afternoon. His discussions were 'true' Gary Bernardo~~~straight and to the point. He stresses the soft-skills. It is the soft-skills that will 'make' or 'break' any aspiring candidate, before anything else will.
Buffalo ReUse of the Northampton & Main Street area had their Danielle Rovillo present to talk up their thrift store to the inquisitive traffic that engaged her. She shared with me about how they move their thrift-store employees into entry-level hands-on job training, once the customer service soft-skills are absorbed.
Carl Panzarella, and his Energy Efficiency Division of New Buffalo Impact, had his weatherization training program represented by his very capable administrative assistant, Susan. Here again, the inquiries were steady and intermittent placement of signatures on their registration forms means that applications are going to mailed to prospective candidates.
I was thrilled that my newest Lower West Side acquaintance complied with her promise~~~and showed to man a table!!! UCC Asbury Shalom Zone of 520 Seventh St. was very visibly represented by, and I love this first-name, Providencia(Provy!!) Carrion. Included is this Carrion/UCC Asbury-Shalom-Zone package, is now having a DIRECT link to the fabled Luis Acosta!! Luis is legendary because of the respect he has earned with his training regimen. His reputation is such that his building-trade-training applications, and his entry-level crews are always present at the high-visibility Habitat-For-Humanity construction sites.
This was a seven-month obsession of mine; trying to find this legend~~~that nobody wanted to disclose details on the whereabouts of. This guy is so venerated that he has a loyal group of 'linemen' that runs interference for him. Luis doesn't want to be bothered with liaison matters. So I'll present my Portal prospects to Provy, and she'll introduce these young men and women, to Luis.
God, I Love Fridays!!!!
I am going to interject an interesting side-bar that made up a small segment of the day's experiences. I had a very very engaging, animated, and, I felt, connecting conversation with two of NY State Senator Antoine Thompson's foot-soldiers. Fabiola Friot and Madeline Rodriguez seemed to take what I had to say~~~to heart.
The compliment of the vocational/trade representation was completed by my very loyal and very supportive I B T brethren. Mike Gerviss, Vice President of the local that represents U P S, Local 449, was there and so was Michael Wach, President of my local, Local 375 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The huge encouragement is to apply with U P S as a casual for the upcoming seasonal volume. This is the ENTRY-LEVEL envy of the freight/dock/warehousing industry. It is a bump-and-grind experience in the beginning, but the staying-power usually results in the 'casual' attaining the Golden-Egg; permanent employment, premium pay, health insurance coverage, and a paid-pension.
Folks, it doesn't get much better than this!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
A Reunion, an Excursion, and Friendships
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
Just called to say: hello.
I couldn't sleep at all tonight
And I know it's late
But I couldn't wait.
Hello
My friend
Hello
Just called to let you know
I think about you ev'ry night
When I'm here alone
And you're there at home.
Hello.
May be it's been crazy Neil Diamond Hello, again
A Public Thank You...
...to Maria Mulder Herberger for the Annunciation Grade school/High School Reunion Excursion via AMTRAK to Rochester NY. This excursion's centerpiece was the all-day tour of the George Eastman House Museum.
This was followed with everybody joining in prayer, nourishment, and fellowship over supper at the Museum's Cafe.
With still time on-the-clock before our AMTRAK 283 departure home, we all took in a stroll along Rochester's Millionaires Row, and topped-it-off with a one-for-the-road, at Jines Restaurant.
Maria, simply put, the Excursion exceeded ALL expectations.
And Maria, when I say All expectations, I mean all expectations.
From LaVerne Williams Doenges: I am still in awe of yesterday. There was no disconnect from time or situations. It was as if I saw you all the day before, after the shared hugs and tears You filled an ache in my heart I didn't realize existed before yesterday - that I miss my friends here in Buffalo. Saturday, is a memory I'll always treasure and one I will hold in my heart forever.
From Carlene Zimmerman Schultz: Maria..thank you for arranging the wonderful trip to Geo Eastman Museum!!! had a wonderful time. What a hoot seeing everyone !! The Amtrak was awesome..looking forward to my trip to NYC via the train. ...again many thanks for a great day !! much love....CAS
Ann Scime Sandner: Thank you For everything and being such a wonderful person and friend! Had a great day seeing all of my Annunciation friends.
Maria Mulder Herberger: Annunciation Alumns, thank you all for such a fun and memorable day!
Louis Marconi FACEBOOK WALL: PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID ~BUT~THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
This was more than just being a reunion. Because the group was small; there was the 10 of us. And because there was the train-ride to Rochester, and from Rochester to Buffalo, there was the inherent quality-time to exchange conversation and engage humanity. In the process, many friendships were started, while other friendships that had existed; deepened.
I got around in a collapsible wheelchair that AMTRAK was pre-advised on, about my circumstances. They had the lift all set for me to embark and disembark with. Maria was instrumental in making that a reality for me. And everybody was very willing to pitch-in and help push me along. The formal Tour Guide, Cecil, ALWAYS made sure that Carlene had a lane for me to get through so that I was always right up in the front, whenever Cecil was ready to discuss the next point of interest.
The supper at the Cafe was great. It started off with a prayer invocation given to us by my new good friend LaVerne. Part of Annunciation's Class of 1969, she originally hailed from Buffalo, NY but over the last 10 years, has called San Diego home. She and her Husband David made for a wonderful positive mix to this group. David was always there to lend a helping hand when needed. The supper was very delicious. We ended up closing the place!!! I love when we do that!!! It tells me everybody is having a great time.
Also included were: Marietta, who was Annunciation's Class of 1969 valedictorian. There was also Lesia who added her perspectives to the mix. And there was Martha; a retired Erie County Deputy Sheriff, and still carried the badge to prove it. She had a way of 'putting' a 'slant' of many things, interjecting good humor to the conversations.
And then there is Ann Scime Sandner. Quiet; soft-spoken. But would look you in the eye and give direct and insightful reflections. I now see her as~~~a sister of mine.
Maria, you made us all FEEL like we were with you~~~in your home. Thank you for Everything!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Just called to say: hello.
I couldn't sleep at all tonight
And I know it's late
But I couldn't wait.
Hello
My friend
Hello
Just called to let you know
I think about you ev'ry night
When I'm here alone
And you're there at home.
Hello.
May be it's been crazy Neil Diamond Hello, again
A Public Thank You...
...to Maria Mulder Herberger for the Annunciation Grade school/High School Reunion Excursion via AMTRAK to Rochester NY. This excursion's centerpiece was the all-day tour of the George Eastman House Museum.
This was followed with everybody joining in prayer, nourishment, and fellowship over supper at the Museum's Cafe.
With still time on-the-clock before our AMTRAK 283 departure home, we all took in a stroll along Rochester's Millionaires Row, and topped-it-off with a one-for-the-road, at Jines Restaurant.
Maria, simply put, the Excursion exceeded ALL expectations.
And Maria, when I say All expectations, I mean all expectations.
From LaVerne Williams Doenges: I am still in awe of yesterday. There was no disconnect from time or situations. It was as if I saw you all the day before, after the shared hugs and tears You filled an ache in my heart I didn't realize existed before yesterday - that I miss my friends here in Buffalo. Saturday, is a memory I'll always treasure and one I will hold in my heart forever.
From Carlene Zimmerman Schultz: Maria..thank you for arranging the wonderful trip to Geo Eastman Museum!!! had a wonderful time. What a hoot seeing everyone !! The Amtrak was awesome..looking forward to my trip to NYC via the train. ...again many thanks for a great day !! much love....CAS
Ann Scime Sandner: Thank you For everything and being such a wonderful person and friend! Had a great day seeing all of my Annunciation friends.
Maria Mulder Herberger: Annunciation Alumns, thank you all for such a fun and memorable day!
Louis Marconi FACEBOOK WALL: PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID ~BUT~THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
This was more than just being a reunion. Because the group was small; there was the 10 of us. And because there was the train-ride to Rochester, and from Rochester to Buffalo, there was the inherent quality-time to exchange conversation and engage humanity. In the process, many friendships were started, while other friendships that had existed; deepened.
I got around in a collapsible wheelchair that AMTRAK was pre-advised on, about my circumstances. They had the lift all set for me to embark and disembark with. Maria was instrumental in making that a reality for me. And everybody was very willing to pitch-in and help push me along. The formal Tour Guide, Cecil, ALWAYS made sure that Carlene had a lane for me to get through so that I was always right up in the front, whenever Cecil was ready to discuss the next point of interest.
The supper at the Cafe was great. It started off with a prayer invocation given to us by my new good friend LaVerne. Part of Annunciation's Class of 1969, she originally hailed from Buffalo, NY but over the last 10 years, has called San Diego home. She and her Husband David made for a wonderful positive mix to this group. David was always there to lend a helping hand when needed. The supper was very delicious. We ended up closing the place!!! I love when we do that!!! It tells me everybody is having a great time.
Also included were: Marietta, who was Annunciation's Class of 1969 valedictorian. There was also Lesia who added her perspectives to the mix. And there was Martha; a retired Erie County Deputy Sheriff, and still carried the badge to prove it. She had a way of 'putting' a 'slant' of many things, interjecting good humor to the conversations.
And then there is Ann Scime Sandner. Quiet; soft-spoken. But would look you in the eye and give direct and insightful reflections. I now see her as~~~a sister of mine.
Maria, you made us all FEEL like we were with you~~~in your home. Thank you for Everything!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Friday, August 13, 2010
65 Years of Hindsight; The Moral Compass Needle Stiil Sways
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
Saints or sinners, take no prisoners
What's left after you fall? Steve Perry & Journey
This week marks the 65th Anniversary Week of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and V-J Day.
In putting together this essay, I have walked through, and seen on a PBS Special,
some gut-wrenching and provocative material. Please understand this. I love this
Country. There still is no country better than the USA in all of the world. When The
United States stays on that moral high ground, it is exemplary to the point that
many other countries look up to us and attempt to model their affairs and
governmental apparatus as ours.
Regarding our decision to drop two Atomic Bombs to demonstrate our superiority and,
as well, hoping to hasten the end of the War with Imperial Japan, there is now 65 years of hindsight and relative world peace with which to analyze this. Hindsight is always 20/20, and certainly time helps to take the many emotional factors that exist in the-eye-of-the-hurricane, out of the equation.
With death tolls mounting daily---militarily and civilian, the anticipated numbers
were looking to go exponentially off-the-chart, if the War was looking to go into 1946
with a full-scale landing invasion onto the Island Nation of Japan. Richard Frank doggedly details statistics to substantiate this in his book: DOWNFALL.
In early 1945, and this is all graphically detailed in DOWNFALL(which I possess); Richard Frank depicts how the Japanese officials, during the Fire Bombing Raids on the civilian population of Tokyo in March of 1945, dismissed the civilian casualties as heroic samurai warriors giving their lives for the sake of their Homeland and their Divine Emperor.
And Warren Kozak writes in 6 August 2010 Wall Street Journal that:
Since 1945, Japan's narrative has centered almost exclusively on the atomic blasts and its role as victim—with short shrift given to the Japanese invasions of China, Manchuria, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indochina, Burma, New Guinea and, of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese children have learned little about the Rape of Nanking or the fact that as many as 17 million Asians died at the hands of the Japanese in World War II—many in the most brutal ways imaginable.
There is also the inconvenient truth that Japan started the war in the first place. There would have been no war in the Pacific between 1937 and 1945 had Japan stayed home.
Focusing on the atomic bombs paints the Japanese as victims, like other participants in World War II. They were not. The Japanese, like their German allies, were bent on global conquest and the destruction of other people who did not fit their bizarre racial theories. Japan's continued focus on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been an understandable sore point for its Asian neighbors, who suffered greatly at its hands. ...
Young people today may have a hard time understanding that point because of the moral equivalence and political correctness that have taken over our society, our media and especially our universities. It teaches our children that all countries have good and bad elements within them—something so obvious that it's trite. But this lesson has become so powerful that it is not out of the norm for young people today to believe that, while World War II was certainly horrible, all sides share some blame.
As for the morality of the bombing, it seems clear that the bombs actually ended up saving both American and Japanese lives.
The best treatment of these issues I've read is Downfall by Richard Frank. In it, he reviews in great detail the American plans for the invasion of Japan and the Japanese plans for resisting it. He works through the stark mathematics in a most convincing way, demonstrating the cost in lives that would have resulted from an invasion would have been truly astronomical, especially among the Japanese civilian population. Frank also makes an excellent case that starving Japan out in a campaign of submarine warfare and conventional air warfare was neither politically nor militarily practicable. It is a must read for anyone who wants to really understand what happened in August 1945.
With these perspectives offered as a way to keep this essay somewhat grounded, I would like to provide some of my humanity.
Can you imagine...
Six football-fields above you~~~a literal
Hell, worse than Dante's 14th level, opens
up on you.
I can't even fathom that; wouldn't even want
to come close to knowing that.
Imagine the searing temperature, I'm to
understand, was supposed to be seven times
that of the surface of our Sun.
My prayer would be that if that were something
I would have to bear witness to, that God in his
infinite mercy, would have me and my beloved
evaporate in an instant.
Yet, we know that God is not that merciful.
Victims of the Hiroshima blast, with melted
flesh dangling from their twisted distorted
framing that was once considered a body,
jumped...people threw themselves into the rivers to escape the searing heat and attempt to cool their melted skin, which was hanging off~~~ as an account published in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum tells it.
I can only imagine that in our infinite wisdom to carry out TWO of the most devastating acts ever done in the history of mankind, and I still agree that this HAD to be done to hasten an end to the War with Imperial Japan, that we must now know that this can NEVER be done again.
I am still of the school of thought that believes if the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings did not take place, the loss of military and civilian lives, once we poured onto the Japanese Island, would have exceeded millions.
In the words of Edwin Starr...war I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears in thousands of mothers' eyes
When their sons go out to fight and lose their lives
I said:
War... Huh... Good God y'all!
What it is good for?
Absolutely nothing!
I must admit that I flat-out cried...with this one segment of the PBS Special
that I was watching during the anniversary week, covering the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb subject matter.
You see, this young girl was putting together her summer-school day lunch, when the blast took place. Her tin-plated lunch-box was found, after the blast, with the
contents therein, were turned to a solid resin-brick-form; hauntingly charcoal blackened.
As the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum describes what was part of her wardrobe...the shirt above belonged to 13-year-old schoolgirl Nobuko Oshita. She was about half a mile away from the hypocentre of the blast. Relief corps workers found her alive and returned her to her parents but she died later that night.
It is the loss of the innocence; the beautiful young and promising and hopeful lives, that just tears at your very core. When I observed that tin-plated lunch-box sitting alone in the display case, I lost it. It was like I saw this a pet puppy 'lost' because it no longer had its owner~~~to care for it.
There is this pocket watch~~~which was being carried by 59-year-old(my age) Kengo Nikawa over a mile away from the hypocentre of the blast. It was given to him by his son and he always carried it with him. On display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, it bears witness to the exact time of 08:15AM on 6 August 1945, detonating
at 600 metres, that the United States would effect the most sobering and devastating act of the 20th Century. Kengo suffered major burns to his shoulder, back, and head. He died just over 2 weeks later from his injuries.
In The Eye of The Devastating Hurricane, a decision was made. How it touched Humanity,
sways the Moral Compass~~~to this day.
I will close with this anecdotal perspective that was offered at one point during the Manhattan Project development-days where there really was discussions about the morality of this. America did not conduct the Manhattan Project with benign neglect, or devoid of any sense of a moral compass.
Read closely:
A number of notable individuals and organizations have criticized the bombings, many of them characterizing them as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and/or state terrorism. Two early critics of the bombings were Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard, who had together spurred the first bomb research in 1939 with a jointly written letter to President Roosevelt.
Szilard, who had gone on to play a major role in the Manhattan Project, argued:
"Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one... bomb, say, on ROCHESTER and the other on BUFFALO, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?"
Know this. My prayer is~~~Never Again.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
PS: This essay was truly a Labor-of-Love
Saints or sinners, take no prisoners
What's left after you fall? Steve Perry & Journey
This week marks the 65th Anniversary Week of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and V-J Day.
In putting together this essay, I have walked through, and seen on a PBS Special,
some gut-wrenching and provocative material. Please understand this. I love this
Country. There still is no country better than the USA in all of the world. When The
United States stays on that moral high ground, it is exemplary to the point that
many other countries look up to us and attempt to model their affairs and
governmental apparatus as ours.
Regarding our decision to drop two Atomic Bombs to demonstrate our superiority and,
as well, hoping to hasten the end of the War with Imperial Japan, there is now 65 years of hindsight and relative world peace with which to analyze this. Hindsight is always 20/20, and certainly time helps to take the many emotional factors that exist in the-eye-of-the-hurricane, out of the equation.
With death tolls mounting daily---militarily and civilian, the anticipated numbers
were looking to go exponentially off-the-chart, if the War was looking to go into 1946
with a full-scale landing invasion onto the Island Nation of Japan. Richard Frank doggedly details statistics to substantiate this in his book: DOWNFALL.
In early 1945, and this is all graphically detailed in DOWNFALL(which I possess); Richard Frank depicts how the Japanese officials, during the Fire Bombing Raids on the civilian population of Tokyo in March of 1945, dismissed the civilian casualties as heroic samurai warriors giving their lives for the sake of their Homeland and their Divine Emperor.
And Warren Kozak writes in 6 August 2010 Wall Street Journal that:
Since 1945, Japan's narrative has centered almost exclusively on the atomic blasts and its role as victim—with short shrift given to the Japanese invasions of China, Manchuria, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indochina, Burma, New Guinea and, of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese children have learned little about the Rape of Nanking or the fact that as many as 17 million Asians died at the hands of the Japanese in World War II—many in the most brutal ways imaginable.
There is also the inconvenient truth that Japan started the war in the first place. There would have been no war in the Pacific between 1937 and 1945 had Japan stayed home.
Focusing on the atomic bombs paints the Japanese as victims, like other participants in World War II. They were not. The Japanese, like their German allies, were bent on global conquest and the destruction of other people who did not fit their bizarre racial theories. Japan's continued focus on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been an understandable sore point for its Asian neighbors, who suffered greatly at its hands. ...
Young people today may have a hard time understanding that point because of the moral equivalence and political correctness that have taken over our society, our media and especially our universities. It teaches our children that all countries have good and bad elements within them—something so obvious that it's trite. But this lesson has become so powerful that it is not out of the norm for young people today to believe that, while World War II was certainly horrible, all sides share some blame.
As for the morality of the bombing, it seems clear that the bombs actually ended up saving both American and Japanese lives.
The best treatment of these issues I've read is Downfall by Richard Frank. In it, he reviews in great detail the American plans for the invasion of Japan and the Japanese plans for resisting it. He works through the stark mathematics in a most convincing way, demonstrating the cost in lives that would have resulted from an invasion would have been truly astronomical, especially among the Japanese civilian population. Frank also makes an excellent case that starving Japan out in a campaign of submarine warfare and conventional air warfare was neither politically nor militarily practicable. It is a must read for anyone who wants to really understand what happened in August 1945.
With these perspectives offered as a way to keep this essay somewhat grounded, I would like to provide some of my humanity.
Can you imagine...
Six football-fields above you~~~a literal
Hell, worse than Dante's 14th level, opens
up on you.
I can't even fathom that; wouldn't even want
to come close to knowing that.
Imagine the searing temperature, I'm to
understand, was supposed to be seven times
that of the surface of our Sun.
My prayer would be that if that were something
I would have to bear witness to, that God in his
infinite mercy, would have me and my beloved
evaporate in an instant.
Yet, we know that God is not that merciful.
Victims of the Hiroshima blast, with melted
flesh dangling from their twisted distorted
framing that was once considered a body,
jumped...people threw themselves into the rivers to escape the searing heat and attempt to cool their melted skin, which was hanging off~~~ as an account published in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum tells it.
I can only imagine that in our infinite wisdom to carry out TWO of the most devastating acts ever done in the history of mankind, and I still agree that this HAD to be done to hasten an end to the War with Imperial Japan, that we must now know that this can NEVER be done again.
I am still of the school of thought that believes if the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings did not take place, the loss of military and civilian lives, once we poured onto the Japanese Island, would have exceeded millions.
In the words of Edwin Starr...war I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears in thousands of mothers' eyes
When their sons go out to fight and lose their lives
I said:
War... Huh... Good God y'all!
What it is good for?
Absolutely nothing!
I must admit that I flat-out cried...with this one segment of the PBS Special
that I was watching during the anniversary week, covering the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb subject matter.
You see, this young girl was putting together her summer-school day lunch, when the blast took place. Her tin-plated lunch-box was found, after the blast, with the
contents therein, were turned to a solid resin-brick-form; hauntingly charcoal blackened.
As the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum describes what was part of her wardrobe...the shirt above belonged to 13-year-old schoolgirl Nobuko Oshita. She was about half a mile away from the hypocentre of the blast. Relief corps workers found her alive and returned her to her parents but she died later that night.
It is the loss of the innocence; the beautiful young and promising and hopeful lives, that just tears at your very core. When I observed that tin-plated lunch-box sitting alone in the display case, I lost it. It was like I saw this a pet puppy 'lost' because it no longer had its owner~~~to care for it.
There is this pocket watch~~~which was being carried by 59-year-old(my age) Kengo Nikawa over a mile away from the hypocentre of the blast. It was given to him by his son and he always carried it with him. On display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, it bears witness to the exact time of 08:15AM on 6 August 1945, detonating
at 600 metres, that the United States would effect the most sobering and devastating act of the 20th Century. Kengo suffered major burns to his shoulder, back, and head. He died just over 2 weeks later from his injuries.
In The Eye of The Devastating Hurricane, a decision was made. How it touched Humanity,
sways the Moral Compass~~~to this day.
I will close with this anecdotal perspective that was offered at one point during the Manhattan Project development-days where there really was discussions about the morality of this. America did not conduct the Manhattan Project with benign neglect, or devoid of any sense of a moral compass.
Read closely:
A number of notable individuals and organizations have criticized the bombings, many of them characterizing them as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and/or state terrorism. Two early critics of the bombings were Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard, who had together spurred the first bomb research in 1939 with a jointly written letter to President Roosevelt.
Szilard, who had gone on to play a major role in the Manhattan Project, argued:
"Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one... bomb, say, on ROCHESTER and the other on BUFFALO, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?"
Know this. My prayer is~~~Never Again.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
PS: This essay was truly a Labor-of-Love
Friday, August 6, 2010
Staying On The High Road
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
...don't stand
a devil's chance
to win my soul;
beggin~~~Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
A Reflection
How can one day be so good; and another day, go so south?
God~~~you know, you get this magazine in the mail and the COVER just tears you apart. It is dead serious material and you feel compelled to react and respond~~~on so many levels. So you do. You are like the mad-scientist!!! You are all over the place on this. Writing a letter to the editor. Jumping on the internet, and sharing this over to FACEBOOK. While on FACEBOOK, you find yourself making more commentary in the comment boxes. While doing all this, you find yourself doing some additional multi-tasking; bouncing between TABS and catching up on email. While dealing with this graphic stuff from this magazine, I get distracted by a FORWARDED e-mail. It consists of some off-color-humor and an accompanying anecdotal reflection. This one in particular; a little racy; having to do with a priest and a nun, gets me to laugh. Maybe to lighten the FACEBOOK page up a bit; I have no other reason otherwise~~~other than plain asinine stupidity, I post it on my FACEBOOK page. Now, I didn't want to take away from the dramatic effect of my wall posting, so I placed it below, as a COMMENT. I did not want the humor to get lost, so, in posting it 'below' I ended up juxta-positioning it badly. If I dropped it lower, it would have ended up on the second page. In doing all of this 'thinking', I should have acted in a more appropriate manner, realize the folly of this part of the project, and just aborted this effort to post the racy-humor. I instead, recklessly posted it.
Why, on the one hand do you put something up on FACEBOOK, championing the plight of women and young women throughout the underdeveloped countries of the world. And on the other hand, you post something that makes light of the vulnerability of women?
You know how sometimes you do things that you just do, and regret later because your thoughtlessness hurts somebody. I wish I had just thought that action through with some more quality time.
By now it is well into the afternoon, and I have to wrap things up because I have to get my Family to a Family Picnic in the SouthTowns area.
I'm now at the Picnic and things are moving along pretty well, and being very enjoyable. Heck, even though there is no sun, and the rural air is a cooler one than expected for the 31 July date, my little step-granddaughter is having the time-of-her-life continuously going on the BANZAI FALLS inflatable. As fate would have it, having been in the middle of this grouping of family, I excuse myself to attend the restroom. I JUST get in there~~~when I get a TEXT-MESSAGE jingle. I read it.
I can't possibly begin to explain the myriad of emotions that raced; literally raced, through my mind.
Among other things~~~You see YOUR WORLD crashing & burning, before your very eyes.
First thing I do is~~~ be a Man. I admit the poor judgment, and then I apologize.
For the next 45 minutes, the fly-on-the-wall had to be laughing his ass off. Keep in mind, I'm at a family picnic. We are in a rural area. And 'they' have no internet. I'm thinking~~~OMG~~~I'm Foxtrotted! And since this family gathering is large it is laid out on an acre of grass area, and I'm trying to make some things happen~~~in a scooter. As fate would have it, my wife's nephew has what I think, is an iPHONE. I have no idea, really. I was just grateful that there was something available to take some corrective action with. He tells me it has many APPS; including~~~he thinks~~~FACEBOOK. It takes like 5 minutes, but FACEBOOK boots up!!! So far, nobody is asking...'what is going on'!?!?!? So he hands me the Whatever, and walks away!! He assumes I know how to navigate through this! I'm thinking~~~OMG!? Navigating through this APPS device is all done by touching and the pushing gesture on the screen surface. First thing I have to do is to sign-on. I clumsily figure out how to find the alpha screen and then the numeric screen. I finally get the image for my Home Page. Damn!! How do I get this to the Wall Page?? So far I'm still doing this; no questions asked!?!? Somehow; I have no idea really, I get the screen to image my profile page. I must have tapped the right part of the screen and somehow~~~it came up. So I find the comment fields that need to be removed. That is right; 2 comment fields. I have evidently upset 2 persons with this off-colored humor. Foxtrot, I'm thinking. With the desk-top, I use the mouse to move the cursor over the REMOVE field~~~and click. That comment then, gets removed. I don't have that damned mouse!!! Now what do I do?!?!?
"...what a world; what a world."
As I'm winging my finger across the surfaces, I notice a red-colored DELETE field appear~~~then disappear. Foxtrot!! I thought. That has to be it; how do I get that back?!?!? I didn't want any attention brought on me on what I was doing. I mean I have a sister who I just disappointed, and I don't want to explain my stupidity to EVERYBODY. I get lucky and I get this red-colored DELETE field back again.
God I didn't care if I was DELETING my FACEBOOK acct. I just wanted to make sure that those 2 comments got deleted. I had no way of 'proofing' it. From what I could make out with the subsequent fingering of the screen surface, it appeared the comments were removed. I discreetly got the iPHONE??? back to my nephew.
And still no 'inquiring-reporters'.
In the reality of the time-space continuum, it was, in all-likelihood, seen only by the 2 people that expressed concerned. It was up for three hours~~~and in a part of Saturday where most people would have been outdoors. And certainly the aforementioned is not to diminish the error in judgment. It is to give the peace-of-mind that the reputations remained unblemished.
Heart pounding, and mind racing. When I'm wrong, God it just tears me apart because people that you love become
disappointed in you. This troubled me so much that it affecting my stomach literally all night.
From a troubled stomach~~~to a tortured soul.
Now~~~I'm working on earning back my respect, and the trust from those whose Love is being held in the balance.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
...don't stand
a devil's chance
to win my soul;
beggin~~~Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
A Reflection
How can one day be so good; and another day, go so south?
God~~~you know, you get this magazine in the mail and the COVER just tears you apart. It is dead serious material and you feel compelled to react and respond~~~on so many levels. So you do. You are like the mad-scientist!!! You are all over the place on this. Writing a letter to the editor. Jumping on the internet, and sharing this over to FACEBOOK. While on FACEBOOK, you find yourself making more commentary in the comment boxes. While doing all this, you find yourself doing some additional multi-tasking; bouncing between TABS and catching up on email. While dealing with this graphic stuff from this magazine, I get distracted by a FORWARDED e-mail. It consists of some off-color-humor and an accompanying anecdotal reflection. This one in particular; a little racy; having to do with a priest and a nun, gets me to laugh. Maybe to lighten the FACEBOOK page up a bit; I have no other reason otherwise~~~other than plain asinine stupidity, I post it on my FACEBOOK page. Now, I didn't want to take away from the dramatic effect of my wall posting, so I placed it below, as a COMMENT. I did not want the humor to get lost, so, in posting it 'below' I ended up juxta-positioning it badly. If I dropped it lower, it would have ended up on the second page. In doing all of this 'thinking', I should have acted in a more appropriate manner, realize the folly of this part of the project, and just aborted this effort to post the racy-humor. I instead, recklessly posted it.
Why, on the one hand do you put something up on FACEBOOK, championing the plight of women and young women throughout the underdeveloped countries of the world. And on the other hand, you post something that makes light of the vulnerability of women?
You know how sometimes you do things that you just do, and regret later because your thoughtlessness hurts somebody. I wish I had just thought that action through with some more quality time.
By now it is well into the afternoon, and I have to wrap things up because I have to get my Family to a Family Picnic in the SouthTowns area.
I'm now at the Picnic and things are moving along pretty well, and being very enjoyable. Heck, even though there is no sun, and the rural air is a cooler one than expected for the 31 July date, my little step-granddaughter is having the time-of-her-life continuously going on the BANZAI FALLS inflatable. As fate would have it, having been in the middle of this grouping of family, I excuse myself to attend the restroom. I JUST get in there~~~when I get a TEXT-MESSAGE jingle. I read it.
I can't possibly begin to explain the myriad of emotions that raced; literally raced, through my mind.
Among other things~~~You see YOUR WORLD crashing & burning, before your very eyes.
First thing I do is~~~ be a Man. I admit the poor judgment, and then I apologize.
For the next 45 minutes, the fly-on-the-wall had to be laughing his ass off. Keep in mind, I'm at a family picnic. We are in a rural area. And 'they' have no internet. I'm thinking~~~OMG~~~I'm Foxtrotted! And since this family gathering is large it is laid out on an acre of grass area, and I'm trying to make some things happen~~~in a scooter. As fate would have it, my wife's nephew has what I think, is an iPHONE. I have no idea, really. I was just grateful that there was something available to take some corrective action with. He tells me it has many APPS; including~~~he thinks~~~FACEBOOK. It takes like 5 minutes, but FACEBOOK boots up!!! So far, nobody is asking...'what is going on'!?!?!? So he hands me the Whatever, and walks away!! He assumes I know how to navigate through this! I'm thinking~~~OMG!? Navigating through this APPS device is all done by touching and the pushing gesture on the screen surface. First thing I have to do is to sign-on. I clumsily figure out how to find the alpha screen and then the numeric screen. I finally get the image for my Home Page. Damn!! How do I get this to the Wall Page?? So far I'm still doing this; no questions asked!?!? Somehow; I have no idea really, I get the screen to image my profile page. I must have tapped the right part of the screen and somehow~~~it came up. So I find the comment fields that need to be removed. That is right; 2 comment fields. I have evidently upset 2 persons with this off-colored humor. Foxtrot, I'm thinking. With the desk-top, I use the mouse to move the cursor over the REMOVE field~~~and click. That comment then, gets removed. I don't have that damned mouse!!! Now what do I do?!?!?
"...what a world; what a world."
As I'm winging my finger across the surfaces, I notice a red-colored DELETE field appear~~~then disappear. Foxtrot!! I thought. That has to be it; how do I get that back?!?!? I didn't want any attention brought on me on what I was doing. I mean I have a sister who I just disappointed, and I don't want to explain my stupidity to EVERYBODY. I get lucky and I get this red-colored DELETE field back again.
God I didn't care if I was DELETING my FACEBOOK acct. I just wanted to make sure that those 2 comments got deleted. I had no way of 'proofing' it. From what I could make out with the subsequent fingering of the screen surface, it appeared the comments were removed. I discreetly got the iPHONE??? back to my nephew.
And still no 'inquiring-reporters'.
In the reality of the time-space continuum, it was, in all-likelihood, seen only by the 2 people that expressed concerned. It was up for three hours~~~and in a part of Saturday where most people would have been outdoors. And certainly the aforementioned is not to diminish the error in judgment. It is to give the peace-of-mind that the reputations remained unblemished.
Heart pounding, and mind racing. When I'm wrong, God it just tears me apart because people that you love become
disappointed in you. This troubled me so much that it affecting my stomach literally all night.
From a troubled stomach~~~to a tortured soul.
Now~~~I'm working on earning back my respect, and the trust from those whose Love is being held in the balance.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
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