Compassion/Rachamim: Part 3 of a 4 Part Series — by Howard Richard Debs The State of Hate And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it — Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Most of the synagogue members in Colleyville Texas were watching Sabbath services virtually from home, concerned for their safety from a virus; I too, with fear, my…

Remembrance /Zachor: Part 2 of a 4 Part Series — by Howard Richard Debs Summers with Aunt Sissy “May their memory be for a blessing” — Jewish honorific His name was Mel, a traveling salesman. He almost always smoked big cigars and he had a big car. In boyhood I didn’t pay much attention to things like make and…

Justice /Tzedek: Part 1 of a 4 Part Series — by Howard Richard Debs One Less Gun in Kenosha I know Kenosha, it’s a friendly enough place, usually quiet any time of year except that time shots were fired by a teen — in self-defense the jury agreed; a protest going on then, night after night of mayhem…

“We have an obsession with violence. It’s everywhere.” A reader asks: “did something change between ca. 1965 and ca. 1990?” — A thoughtful comment and a question from a reader, prompts this second installment of “In Light of Uvalde.” Here’s what the reader wrote: Good article. And here is, perhaps, the odd thing. My brother and I, both children of the ’60s, used to play cowboy all the time in the…

“We have an obsession with violence. It’s everywhere.” — I know someone who knows a thing or two about grief and sorrow, about violence in America; someone who every morning steps out the front door of her home to deal with the most tragic situations imaginable to help people who are victimized by and through a torrent of unspeakable…

Like disinformation, “discommunication” can have devastating consequences; this epoch of text messages and emails is fraught with pitfalls. — I just received an email that will aptly illustrate the issue of the day. I am providing a redacted version for many reasons, notable among them that I don’t want legal ramifications to ensue from my use of this prime example: The overriding message in the email is “stay off…

Growing up I watched Flash Gordon serials on TV, the original serials from the glory days of movie houses resurrected. I’d better explain, or try to. First some pop culture history. — It started with artist Alex Raymond (1909–1956) creator of the original Flash Gordon comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934, later adapted into three Universal movie serials (1936’s Flash Gordon, 1938’s Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, and 1940’s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe). What’s a “serial” you ask? A…

My work was first published later in life, at age 70, to be exact; I had won a poetry prize way back when, which should have been encouraging, but I had other fish to fry. I married, started a family, took up marketing communications and advertising — copywriting is writing…

(First published in my Author Blog) William Carlos Williams wrote, “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there” (from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower.”) Poetry published in newspapers, known as “newspaper poetry” or sometimes “magazine verse,” was a common feature of…