• Keith A. Kenel is an aging cyclist, amateur actor, failing triathlete, prolific poet, terrible singer and ponderer of ideas large and small.

keithakenel

~ This WordPress.com site is the bee's knees

keithakenel

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Beautiful Art

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

30th Wedding Anniversary, Aging, Commitment, Marriage, Patricia Tierney Kenel

20150814_193008

White gown wedding morning,
black slip at night,
Searing red passion
of earthly delight.
Fresh youth resplendent
with hearts all aglow,
Feels love transcendent
with fire below.
Sweet rose colored glasses
that warp and twist,
Make saccharine pictures
hard to resist.
Cracks in life’s mirror,
dream’s panes that are warped,
Time, like a bandit,
love’s reign can usurp.
Easy to falter,
when road’s strewn and steep;
When all that’s recalled
is how the soul weeps.
“To have and to hold,
till death do we part,”
Pledge of sacred honor
song of the heart.
Moon light of honey,
how long can it last?
Love is a seasoning,
not a repast.
When boons become burdens,
tasks to endure,
Then hearts too shall wither
and be inured.
Love is a marathon,
not a sprint race,
Accepts pain with pleasure,
understands grace.
Two into one
true marriage must transform,
Where love battles to uplift
and reform.
Youth transformed to dotage
blink of an eye,
Dark hair to silver
so soon does man die.
Ties that bind
are affairs of steadfast hearts
Lifelong love affairs
are beautiful art.

Advertisements

MEMORIAL MAY: USA & JAPAN

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Arlington Cemetery, Decoration Day, General John Logan, Hiroshima, Japan, Memorial Day, Nagasaki, President Obama, US Apology to Japan, Veterans Day, William Kenel, World War II

Arlington Cemetery

Once upon a time, in a land called The United States of America, May thirtieth was a day that commemorated the soldiers who lost their lives while serving their country.

The graves of fallen servicemen and women were decorated with flowers and flags on Decoration Day as a highly inadequate but heartfelt tribute to honor those soldiers who had made the ultimate sacrifice. Laying flowers on graves is a prehistoric practice but consensus has it that Decoration Day was established May 30, 1868 when General John Logan eulogized the deaths of over 600,000 American soldiers who died during the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. After the speeches and oratory on that Saturday at Arlington Cemetery an army of 5,000 volunteers laid flowers on the graves of over 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers to honor the dead and work toward healing a devastated and divided nation.

Memorial Day arose from Decoration Day and in keeping with America’s evolving sense of prioritization the inconvenient May 30th remembrance was changed in 1971 to the last Monday in May, effectively paving the way to the trivialization of this salute to our fallen warriors. For many Memorial Day now simply marks a three-day weekend ushering in the beginning of summer. For me it is much more.

Many of us confuse Veterans Day with Memorial Day. Veterans Day is November 11th and honors all US military personnel while Memorial Day is a day in which we remember military personnel who died serving our country. I associate hundreds of faces with Veterans Day, including my sister’s and her husband’s, but the face I think of on Memorial Day is that of my uncle, William Kenel.

kenelwilliama

My father, his four brothers and my mother’s brother all served in the US military. Three of these men, Philip Markey, Daniel Kenel and William Kenel fought in World War II. Phil and Dan returned from service but Bill was killed, murdered, while being held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese.

World War II ended nearly sixteen years before I was born. I was not reared on racial prejudice and though my father refused to buy a Japanese car because of his brother Bill’s POW murder he was proud of the fact that in the 1960’s big brother and WWII veteran Dan graciously accepted a Japanese foreign exchange student into his home. Dad was also pleased when I hosted a Japanese exchange student for a short term visit to the USA in 2008.

War is an atrocious thing. Some wars are more heinous than others. Over 60,000,000 people died in World War II. Germany, with her death camps and agenda of genocide, has acknowledged its part in the devastation of the world that occurred between 1939 and 1945. This is far less true of Japan.

World War II was again in the news with President Obama’s visit to Japan. Obama is the first US president to visit Hiroshima which, on August 6, 1945, was destroyed by nuclear bomb when Little Boy was dropped by the Enola Gay over the city. Three days later Nagasaki was also destroyed by uranium bomb. Less than one week later Japan ended her reign of terror.

I remember arguing with my father over the morality and necessity of the two US nuclear strikes on Japan. Fifteen is a sophomoric age and it was then that I earnestly asked if perhaps we couldn’t have detonated one of our two atom bombs over an unpopulated area with a warning that there were many more at our disposal. Dad shook his head in dismay. The US had only two bombs and there was no assurance that they would work. Soldiers and sailors were dying daily as the empire sent out kamikaze pilots hell bent on saving the Japanese mainland. Using nuclear weapons meant shortening the war and saving hundreds of thousands of lives, both US and Japanese. I listened but at that point I did not hear. The threat of nuclear annihilation was far different in 1976 than it was in 1945 and my limited experience made me blind to the reality of that difference. I have since come around to conventional 1945 US dogma concerning the use of A-Bombs on Japan.

I do believe that ending the war of aggression that the Axis Powers reaped upon the earth was essential. It is undeniable that Japan committed atrocities throughout Asia and held in contempt any who dared stand against it. Ending the war was essential but what of the use of nuclear weapons?

The main goal of using nuclear weapons against Japan was to show them the futility of continuing their war. The morality concerning the decision to do so in 1945 was very different than it would be today. Over 100,000 people had already died in Tokyo bombings, roughly the same as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Defeating Japan was essential and bringing the war to a quick end without an invasion unquestionably saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The destruction of these two cities was in keeping with the lethality of World War II and represents a necessary reaction to Japan’s imperialistic ferocity. For all these reasons I feel that the United States in no way owes Japan an apology for the nuclear strikes. Not all agree.

Many of President Obama’s detractors criticized his decision to visit Hiroshima. I do not share the feeling that a Hiroshima visit was ill advised.

There was also much discussion concerning the possibility that Obama would apologize for our 08/06/45 bombing mission, a possibility that filled me with anger. President Obama did not apologize for the US bombing of Hiroshima. He called for peace and nuclear disarmament: A hope that human beings can leave behind barbarism and ascend to a higher way of working out differences. His speech, while full of platitudes, was one of hope and a need for change. It was not an apology, it was a declaration that human beings need to settle grievances and dispute without resorting to force or war; something I hope we can all work towards.

Nearly three quarters of a century has passed since World War Two. The United States and Japan, once mortal enemies, are allies. Nationalism, religious ferocity, xenophobia and countless other barriers to peace still exist and we have a long way to go before swords will be shaped into plowshares. Acknowledging horrors and fighting against them is important work but apologizing for the horrid actions of another gets us no closer to peace than does capitulation; I’m glad President Obama seems to realize this.

BTW- Do I think that retribution played any part in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Seems to me that then vice-president George Bush’s September 7, 1988 gaffe says it all, ”Today is Pearl Harbor Day – 47 years ago from this very day we were hit and hit hard at Pearl Harbor.” Was Bush’s statement a mere slip of the tongue or the world’s most telling Freudian slip concerning how America’s Greatest Generation really felt about payback to Japan? I’d lay long odds that in 1945 most Americans felt that Japan got exactly what she deserved for attacking us, whether that’s true or not I certainly don’t think we owe the aggressors an apology for ending the war that they began. Just look at how well peace at any price worked in 1939.

I-n-d-o-c-t-r-i-n-a-t-i-o-n

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

"Some Thoughts Concerning Education", Blind Belief, Data, Facts, Gun Deaths, John Locke, Lies and Statistics, Murder by Gun, Nature of Knowledge, Objective Reality, Opinion, Partisanism, Partisanship, Progress, Second Amendment, Subjective, Tabula Rosa, Truth

Classic Classroom

Early childhood education should be spelled i-n-d-o-c-t-r-i-n-a-t-i-o-n. This is so because even though we all come into the world hard-wired with preferences, instincts and genetic traits we enter, as John Locke phrased it 225 years ago, tabula rosa, or blank slate. Knowing nothing, the world is presented to us through the lens of the vast army that teaches us including parents, siblings, teachers and the myriad fold with whom we come in contact. We begin by knowing nothing and accumulate facts, knowledge and opinions as we age. There is a vast sea of facts that must be learned that vary from the simple to the sublime and in our earliest years this volume of information is presented in rudimentary and straightforward terms. This is true, that is false; one action is good the other evil.

This presentation of the world is as misleading as it is necessary. Knowing nothing, children must have basic building blocks with which to create a groundwork upon which to build. Subtlety and nuance  are for more sophisticated palates than those of preschool aged children and understanding that perception of reality differs mightily between individuals is a concept lost on many an adult. There are those who believe in our ability to describe and converse about true reality, but I am not one of them. I grant that reality exists, but insist that each of us has his own slant on how it is viewed.

The concept of subjectivity was brought to the forefront when I shared some gun violence death statistics via Facebook. A few weeks ago a strong Second Amendment friend of mine had said to me that two thirds of gun deaths in the USA were self inflicted, a statistic that was new to me. Being a skeptic I checked several sources and found multiple credible references confirming this statistic. I learned that typical data for recent years indicates that in the US we have roughly 100,000 gunshot wounds per year, 32,000 deaths but less than 10,000 murders. The vast majority of US gun deaths are self inflicted.

My main reason for sharing these stats was because I found them shocking. I did not know that we had such a high incidence of gunshots (100,000) and while I was aware of the 32,000 number I didn’t know how many of them were self inflicted. I was fascinated by the numbers and wanted to share with friends what I had learned. Of course, guns are a very touchy subject and I received a lot of very subjective responses to what I thought was a mostly objective post. You’d think I’d know better, wouldn’t you?

My little virtual encounter with the politics and passion concerning guns reinforced for me how black and white, how unnuanced, so many of us see our world. One of my trite little sayings is, “I believe in reality, it’s just that none of us has a monopoly on what it really is.” The problem is so many of us think we do. We do know the facts, the truth, the way, the right and those in opposition to us are wrong.

Strong beliefs are important but facts that differ from our world view present us with opportunities to grow. One of the most insidious maladies that the US seems to be suffering from is partisanism.  Too many of us refuse to look at all sides of an issue and try to find common ground and work toward pragmatic solutions. Refusing to look at the world from another person’s perspective is juvenile as is flippantly discrediting substantive data. Just because we were indoctrinated with simple concepts as children doesn’t mean that we can’t take our learning, understanding and living to a higher level and the first step towards getting along in peaceful coexistence is giving the other guy a chance to speak without shouting him down simply because his views differ from your own. If we can’t do that I’m afraid we’re all going to be stuck in nursery school till the end of time.

 

Mantra I Pray

23 Monday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Battle, Depression, Hope

Head in Hands

Raining blows without end, joy it does rend
Weight that drags and drowns, never ending rounds
Gray heart and mind, dead passage of time
Hope that has fled leaving me feeling dead
Twilight day and night longing to feel right

Hellions without surcease; down on my knees
Pray higher power makes banshees cower
Cast out demons within, wash away sin
Arise as a man, retake life’s command
Is this the dawn, glorious antiphon?

Yearning for relief, vict’ry o’er mirth’s thief
Rose sunrise appears, first glow half a year
Glimmer of light that my soul might ignite?
Can this be the start whence I regain heart?
Helicopter seeds lead to maple trees

One day at a time long search for sublime
With help from on high end incessant sighs
Oasis of hope, spring to which I grope
Please buoy me up, refill my life’s cup
“Give me strength this day,” is mantra I pray

Estranged

22 Sunday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Death of a parent, Rejection

It has been over eight years since I lost my mother. I became an orphan with my dad’s death early in 2014. Losing my parents, both of whom were well into their eighties, was a horrendous blow to me. Just yesterday I had to stifle an urge to call Dad and share some news with him. I loved both my parents and their deaths hit me very hard. Losing someone you love, cherish, and respect is a devastating blow but what about losing a parent that was not worthy of respect, someone who could be cherished by few and respected by none? What must that feel like?

I did not see eye to eye with my parents and my passage into youth and adolescence was often quite rocky. We had major parent/child differences revolving around responsibility and generational issues: My relationship with my folks was not perfect because there is no such thing as a perfect relationship but it was based on love and acceptance.

This last week I had two long time friends lose a parent. Betsy, a woman I have known since the mid 1970’s, lost her dad, a man she cherished and looked up to. I am confident that I know how crushing her dad’s death was to her. I understand that the bond between a father and daughter is different than between father and son but I feel certain that although the details vary the pain we felt when our dads passed is similar.

But what of the other circumstance? What about a mother who rejects her children and derides them? What must the passing of that woman feel like?

I met Julie in the early eighties and we have grown closer as the years progressed. I know her brother and father too: All three are outstanding people that I am proud to count as friends. Mom, who I met once, was described by one and all as incorrigible, unreasonable, self-centered and downright cruel. Do I know this to be the case? I do not, though this sentiment has been shared by many more than the three family members and in this case the subjective reality is far more important than objective observation. Dad and mom divorced and the children’s emotional reality was that the woman was so scathing to them that they viewed her as cruel and unloving; a very sad state of affairs.

Death of a loved one always hurts, but all four of those that passed lived long lives and three of the parents had worked hard to bring love and harmony into their homes. I imagine that the exception, the death of Julie’s mom, must be even more painful to her children because there was only discord and tension, rejection and tears. With death there is no opportunity for atonement or reconciliation, only a life time of what ifs and whys.

I have no words of comfort for Julie except to emphasize that she did everything a child could to make a healthy relationship with her mother but time and again she was rejected. We can’t go back and heal relationships once someone leaves us but we can work to bring joy to our own children and not repeat the mistakes our parents made. I know Julie has a loving family and I hope they buoy her in her time of sorrow and that she does not succumb to the emotional torture that the loss of a parent can create because she, like all children, should have a legacy of love given to them that they can pass on. She was denied the first part but is doing a grand job of passing on love to her own children.

Let us hope that all that have passed rest in peace and allow we the living to do the same.

 

Will He

20 Friday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

'Death of a Salesman', Death, Dreams, Failures, Family, Impotence, Joy, Sorrow, Status, Wealth, Zero Sum Game

Willy Loman

Willy Loman hid God forsaken hose
Death of a dream hellish punch in the nose
Finish line in sight, nearly free and clear
Ledger seems balanced but life in arrears

What stockings mended to drive me insane?
Zero joy found in life’s zero sum game
Status, honor, not found in looking glass
Impotence pondered sitting on my ass

Dreams that tantalize leave us thirsting so
Visions of Champagne encircled with roe
No matter strength with which we cling and claw
Desolation is the end for us all

“Attention must be paid,” grave epithet
Race keeps devolving to level of rat

Illusions Fall

18 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Consumption, Imperialism, Self Deceit, Words v deeds

Tick, tick, tick clock and heart
World of dreams, world of art
Escape is words away
What’s altered, horrors spayed?
Scale mountains, seas traverse
In person or just verse?
Naught happens till it does
Wars go on taunting doves
Peaceful state we hold dear
Pudding’s proof tastes quite queer
Conquest wars, foreign shores
Produce styles we adore
Little words that placate
Do not halt reaping hate
No, not I! Call us all
How long till illusions fall?
Short time now ‘fore we land
Barren Earth which we stand
Weeps and groans of ravished
All too clear we are cursed

Twenty Seventh State

17 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Florida, Losers, Ponzi Schemes, Poor, Rich, Shell Games, Winners

Ribbon of land, sand pit on which I stand,
Posturing gestures, coifed hair and tans deep,
These are the symbols of my new found land
Where many are sheared as crusty eyed sheep.

Pyramids created soon lost in flood,
Those at the top smugly sing from above,
Base knows the tune is scored in muck and mud,
Under the water line peons get shoved.

Nightmarish scene in which we coexist,
Small plots for the poor in land of the rich,
Hope slowly drained as from pallid slit wrists,
Shrewd power brokers declare life’s a bitch.

Languid, lurid shell game of Ponzi scheme,
Shady winners of American dream.

Alchemy of Marriage: Paper to Gold

16 Monday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

05/16/95, Kevin & Katie First Anniversary

First year is paper, white and unmarred, followed by cotton whose picking makes scars.
Leather does follow, the boot or the strap, linen the fourth year, garments to enwrap.
Wood for the fifth, perhaps a fine house, Iron is six- Google car steered by mouse?
Copper, bronze, pottery takes us to tin, steel’s number eleven, feel the strength within.
Silk, lace, ivory and crystal are all quite fine things, twenty is China, land once ruled by kings.
Twenty-four is an opal, silver’s twenty-five, don’t know why 24 is in there, this counting is jive.
Every five years now, we have a theme, pearl is at 30 but jaded is thirty-fifth scene.
Ruby is forty, Sapphire forty-five, fifty is golden, if we’re still alive.
Each of the years goes by in a rush, time never ceasing, turns us into dust.
Cling tight to one another, for all of your lives, be a great spouse, cherish husband and wife.
When you look back at the years you have spent, I pray they all seem to be heaven sent.

LGBTQ Bathroom Brouhaha

12 Thursday May 2016

Posted by keithakenel in Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bigots, Discrimination, Equal Protection Under The Law, Equality, Leviticus, LGBT, LGBTQ, North Carolina, Pedophiles, Perverts, The Bathroom Debate, Trans Bathrooms, Transgender

index

In the struggle between orthodoxy and progressiveness my personal views are a hodgepodge that focus on equal opportunity and protection under the law. Egalitarian societies should neither handicap nor benefit one segment of a population at the expense of another. There are numerous examples when the balance of freedom and liberty is pointedly skewed against a minority. When this is the case it is our duty as citizens to speak out against inequity and champion those who struggle against an oppressive or tyrannical system.

It seems obvious that the LGBTQ community represents a minority that has been denied both equal protection and basic equal rights since prior to the founding of the United States of America. Beatings, deaths, denial of security clearances, unequal access to housing, arrest on the street for activities done in the privacy of their own homes and the ever present fear of being fired from a job for “being queer” are just a handful of examples in which the LGBTQ have been discriminated against in gross and unfair manners. Apologists who deny discrimination are both absurd and on the wrong side of the freedom pendulum. There is no law in our country that states that we have to approve or agree with all the actions of our neighbors but as we are all human beings we are all entitled to legal protection in regards to discrimination.

I am pleased to say that during my lifetime many advances have been made concerning the rights of LGBTQ to marry as well as to work and live where and how they choose. To this I say amen. Each of us is indeed entitled to, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Regardless of the obvious need to provide equal protection and opportunity to LGBTQ there is a large minority who believes that to do so is contrary to divine decree. Many times the appeal to deny equal rights is stated baldly, perhaps accompanied by a quote from Leviticus, in which the self-righteous quote scripture and allude to a need to stone to death men who lie with men. In response I grant that feeling and spewing hatred is a free speech right but that I thank God above that we are a nation of law and not a theocracy that cherry-picks Biblical text in the hope of creating laws that deny basic civil rights to those with whom we disagree. In a civil society civil rights must trump religious bigotry.

The progression of freedom is never without consequence. When mores of western society that have existed for millennia are swept away a void or vacuum is left and nature does indeed abhor a vacuum. The dissatisfaction that many feel concerning a decree by the United States Supreme Court that effectively threw out what had been essentially a cornerstone of state ratified terrorism against LGBTQ is not just a slice of crow but rather an entire pie and has led to backlash by many who are confused and unsure what direction our country is heading. Confused and scared people seldom act in a rational and loving manner and those that are in opposition to equal rights for LGBTQ cry out that their civil rights are being denied: The right to discriminate and deny services, the right to intimidate and bully, the right to carry on as they have for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Their argument is specious. It is the argument that denied services to blacks, to Jews, to Catholics, Mormons and countless “other.”

Legal discrimination based on sexual preference is as absurd and unjust as that based on religion, race or creed and has no business being part of the United States’ legal code. “With liberty and justice for all” must mean just that, but alas the old guard has a new rallying point. The bulwark of those in opposition to LGBTQ equality is code named “bathroom,” and it is a powerful metaphor on how foully this fight for liberty is being treated; it is also nothing to sneer at.

When I first heard people supporting North Carolina’s position on gender identification and public restroom usage I thought, “Great, here we go again. Just like in the seventies when people used uni-sex bathrooms as a tool to fight the Equal Rights Amendment. Don’t we ever learn?”

I looked at the bathroom debacle as a farce, a red-herring that traditionalists were using to try and turn back the calendar to a time when discrimination against LGBTQ was both ubiquitous and legal. I envisioned trans people simply wanting to use the bathroom of their choice and being denied that right by bigots. To me the transgender bathroom boogeyman was at face value both absurd and a symbol around which a closed minded minority might rally. I laughed, I smirked, I shook my head. Then I started listening to the right and changed my mind.

Well, sort of. The right’s superficial argument is not that trans people are the issue but rather that perverts and pedophiles can use the bathroom transgender identification laws to enter women’s and girls’ locker or bathrooms and that law enforcement can’t stop them. Right or wrong this is a good argument because it makes those who argue against restricting bathroom/locker access appear foolish. Who doesn’t want to protect little girls or defenseless women from hormone crazed psychopaths hellbent on rape? And I am certain that many people who propose that argument truly believe it; not that they’re fooling me. Just because someone truly wants to protect little girls doesn’t mean that they can’t also wish for the good ol’ days when queers were in the closet and it was open season on any that dared venture out it. (And, no, I do not believe that everyone who feels strongly about overturning transgender accessibility to the bathroom of their choice is a hate filled bigot. I do, however, think that much of the concern about predatory perverts storming the girls’ bathrooms is just a polite veneer on an ancient and accepted form of bigotry.)

So where does that leave us? If we believe that LGBTQ should have equal rights under the law what should we do when confronted by a right-winger who brings up transgender bathroom segregation/integration? My first response would be not to fall for the trap. Focus on the need for equality, the long history of discrimination and the need for all citizens to have equal rights. After all, chances are pretty high that each of us has shared a bathroom with a transgender person in the past and not even known it. I advise not biting into the argument unless you know the person with whom you are having a discussion and you are confident that he’s not simply bating you because this is one area where the waters are so muddled that you might just think you were looking at a toilet.

Oh, and to all the transgender folks out there? I hope you just keep using the bathroom that you think is appropriate because here in the good old USA we also have a right to privacy.

 

 

 

← Older posts
Advertisements

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014

Categories

  • Bicycling
  • Fiction
  • Opinion
  • Poetry
  • Theatre

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy