Up From Infamy

Seventy-nine years ago today, the Empire of Japan declared war on the United States. It was, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described it to a joint session of Congress the following day, "a date which will live in infamy." 

It, of course, proved to be much more.  In that instant, borne out of a sun-filled Sunday morning in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, this nation became an active participant in World War II.  We fought against the Germans and the Italians in Europe through the spring of 1945, when Germany's surrender brought an end to the war on the Continent. We fought against the Japanese throughout and all over the Pacific until August 1945 when, following President Truman's orders to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and, thereafter, on Nagasaki, the Japanese finally surrendered. 

Buoyed by a common purpose and imbued by the knowledge that failure was simply not an option, we the people of these United States came together. We did what was necessary because it was necessary. It took courage to do it. It took imagination to do it. It took determination to do it.   

Spoiler alert:  America did it.  

-AK 

Civics and Other Imports

If you are a digital subscriber to The New York Times, then you might have seen this piece on its web site Thursday.  In case you do not subscribe - or if you do and simply missed this piece - I thought it might be a fun way to spend a few minutes on a Sunday morning.  

I subscribe to the theory that an informed electorate is critical to our Republic operating with a modicum of functionality.  In the month-plus since Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to gain election as our nation's 46th President, I have been mystified and mortified by the apparent ignorance many possess regarding what I had long presumed to be well-known, familiar processes and procedures. Truthfully, the ignorance would itself have been easy to overlook had it not been expressed repeatedly and loudly.  

The present administration has toughened the test for becoming a United States citizen, which is something with which I, for one, take no issue.  If one wants to become a citizen of a particular country, then requiring that person to pass a test that is harder than a pee test but significantly easier than any of the Twelve Labours of Hercules seems to me to be a fair, reasonable requirement. The 2020 version of the Civics Test includes twenty questions drawn from a pool of 128 possible questions, of which a person applying for citizenship must answer twelve correctly.  The testing materials one can review in preparation for the exam include the 128 questions and their answers. 

It is an oral exam.  A lifetime ago, Mrs. K assured me that "60%" was not a passing score in Pre-Calculus.  60% is, however, a passing score on the Civics Test.  Fun fact:  Even if 60% had been a passing score in Mrs. K's Pre-Calculus class, I still failed.    

But I digress.  

How would you do on the oral Civics Test.  Based upon a lot of what I have heard and I have read these past thirty-plus days, to borrow a line from the Poet Laureate of the Jersey Shore, it certainly appears that, "You guys in trouble out here".  Maybe?  Then again, maybe not.  The piece in The Times referenced in the first paragraph of this essay provides its reader the opportunity to answer nine questions, which the paper put in multiple-choice form to make it a bit easier:

1 of 9

James Madison is famous for many things. Name one.

President during the War of 1812

Fifth president of the United States

Writer of the Declaration of Independence

First Secretary of State

2 of 9

The American Revolution had many important events. Name one.

Washington crossing the Delaware

Battle of Tippecanoe

Battle of Fort Niagara

The Treaty of Ghent

3 of 9

What is the purpose of the 10th Amendment?

It guarantees the rights of criminal defendants.

It states that the powers not given to the federal government belong to the states or to the people.

It abolished slavery.

It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

 4 of 9

Whom does a member of the House of Representatives represent?

People living in their state

People living in their congressional district

Citizens in their congressional district

Their political party

5 of 9

Who appoints federal judges?

The Chief Justice

The Senate

The President

The Attorney General

6 of 9

How many Supreme Court justices are usually needed to decide a case?

Four

Five

Six

Nine

7 of 9

The Civil War had many important events. Name one.

The Missouri Compromise

The Trail of Tears

The Battle of Little Bighorn

Sherman’s March

8 of 9

Name one leader of the women’s rights movement in the 1800s.

Clara Barton

Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Baker Eddy

Sojourner Truth

9 of 9

The Nation’s first motto was “E Pluribus Unum.” What does that mean?

We the people

Self-government

Out of Many, One

One Nation, Indivisible

Spoiler alert:  I passed!  I presume that you did too.  Even so, keeping the list of 128 questions and answers handy is probably not a bad idea.  Useful tool to have handy to make certain you stay sharp on subject matter that you might not know as well as you once did or, perhaps, have never known as well as you might have believed you did.  

My copy is in the top left drawer of my desk. 

-AK

From the Mouths of Babes

Since the Missus and I purchased our little piece of Paradise by the Sea in 2015, I have subscribed on-line to The Coast Star.  It is a weekly paper, which hits newsstands and e-mail in-boxes alike on Thursday. It is quite an excellent little newspaper, doing a reasonably deep dive into the day-to-day issues afoot in southern Monmouth County (Bradley Beach, Ocean Grove, Avon-by-the-Sea, Belmar, Wall Township, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Sea Girt, Manasquan, and Lake Como).  My annual subscription costs me less than $40.00 and helps me keep up with what is happening at the shore all year-round. 

As Christmas approaches, the Coast Star is replete on a week-in, week-out basis with "Letters to Santa", authored by little kids (generally speaking kindergarten to 3rd grade) who are students at the area's various elementary schools.  A number of the letters are what I suppose you might expect from a small child, which is a recitation of the "must-have" treasures on her of his Christmas list.  Truthfully, however, when I read them I am impressed by their depth, their substance, and their candor.  In this week's edition of the paper (December 3, 2020), among the classes whose letters were published were first graders from West Belmar Elementary School, and included this treasure (note the lad's name): 

Dear Santa:

How many toys do elves make? I want 100 Hot Wheels cars

and a Lego Death Star. I've been trying to be good. 

Love,

Adam

Young Adam did not add emphasize the final sentence in his note.  Old, gray-beard Adam did.  I just love his frank assessment of his own behavior.  He's been trying to be good but someone else, St. Nick himself perhaps, will be the final arbiter of whether he has attained his goal. 

Third-grade students from Ms. Kuczko's class at Wall Township's Allenwood Elementary School had their letters to Santa published week too and included among them was one that, after reading it, I had to remind myself was the work of a third grader:

Dear Santa:

For Christmas, I would like a Razor edge dirt bike. 

I have been a good big brother, a true friend to all and a kind person.

For my sister, who's been through a hard time,

it would be nice for her to get a play ATM machine for Christmas.

She has been brave through a scary time! 

She's sweet like candy and deserves happiness. 

Thank you Santa for reading my note. 

How cold is it in the North Pole? 

Love,

Jackson 

"She's sweet like candy and deserves happiness". Young Jackson reinforces my belief that children represent the best part of humanity. We, the adults who occupy this planet have much to learn from them.   

-AK 

Play Like A Girl

I don't need permission

To change this tradition

When they tell me

"You can't play"

I just turn my back and say

Now all over this big wide world

I play like a girl. 

-Janis Ian

Full disclosure demands that I acknowledge having never heard Sarah Fuller's name until this time last week, when the Vanderbilt University senior, the goalkeeper on the Commodores' SEC Championship-Winning Women's Soccer Team, was pressed into service as the kicker on the Commodores' woebegone football team, for which she made her debut on Saturday, November 28, 2020 against the University of Missouri. 

Just so no one accuses me of unfairly characterizing Vandy's football team as "woebegone", less than twenty-four hours after Mizzou shut them out 41-0, Vanderbilt fired its head coach, Derek Mason.  Coach Mason was in his seventh season as Vandy's head coach, during which time he had complied a 27-55 record, including 0-8 this season. Vanderbilt is one of America's truly great universities. It simply perpetually punches above its weight class playing football in the SEC.  

This weekend, although Derek Mason now has Vanderbilt Football firmly in his rear-view mirror, Sarah Fuller finds herself atop (and alone on) the depth chart for the Commodores' season finale Saturday afternoon in Athens, Georgia against the 10th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.  Irrespective of whether Vandy's offense offers her an opportunity to do anything more than kick the one time she was able to kick last weekend, her story is worth knowing. Not simply for what she has done in these past seven to ten days but for what she had done as a student-athlete at Vanderbilt in the four years she has been a Commodore.  

Sarah Fuller v. Missouri - November 28, 2020

Photo Credit: (c) UPI 

I cannot do her story justice but, fortunately, ESPN has a writer who did.  I commend to your attention this piece Alex Scarborough wrote for its website.   When you read it, you shall learn as did I that this young woman's "overnight success" has been years in the making. It is as inextricably linked to her hard work, her mental toughness, and her perseverance as it is to her natural talent, which is considerable.  

-AK 

The House is Full of People

Indeed it shall.  Growing up with Mom is a constant reminder to me that it is often better to be lucky than good. I, of course, had no control over the family into which I was born. I did not pick my parents.  Yet, fate smiled upon me.  And it did so especially with respect to Mom.  WPK, Sr. died when I was fourteen and before Kara, Jill, or I had set a single foot on a college campus.  Times were tough. Mom was tougher. She made certain that we learned how to be tough too.  

She made certain as well that we learned how to keep our wits irrespective of how hard the situation we were then and there enduring made it for us to do so. Dig deep. Stand fast.  These are life lessons Mom taught me.  

They are also lessons she continues to teach me.  Forty-two months after she died, she remains the greatest, most important teacher I have ever had. 

All that she taught me I shall carry with me for the rest of my life.  As I shall carry her.  Love don't stop. 

Never forgotten. Always loved. 

-AK  

 

So Far, So Good...

I could be wrong. I often am.  However, in this case I believe I am correct.  I believe that the last time my beloved Colorado Buffaloes football team entered December unbeaten and untied was way back when in 1989, which season ended in an Orange Bowl defeat to Notre Dame on January 1, 1990.  Truth be told, the 1989 Buffs roared through September, October, and November winning all eleven games they played.  

The 2020 Buffs?  

Along with the rest of the Pac-12, they sat out September and October. Then, in November, thanks to the continuing presence of COVID-19,  they played only three out four scheduled games and, for good measure, the third and final November game was against an opponent that did not appear on their schedule until two or three days prior to kickoff.  

But I digress. 

"Smart money" coming into this truncated season, in which non-conference games were pared from the schedule and the Buffs were to play only Pac-12 opponents, said the Buffs would perhaps win a single game and, if the stars aligned, then maybe two.  So, entering December 3-0 with wins in both Pac-12 games they have played, against UCLA on Opening Night as a home underdog, and against Stanford at the Farm in Week Two as a road 'dog.  December's first three weekends shall hopefully bring the Buffs their final three regular season games.  While I do not pretend to know how they shall fare, I have every confidence that, under the direction of Head Coach Karl Dorrell and his staff they shall be well-prepared to play and shall do their level best...

...with unrestrained momentum. 

-AK 

At November's End

Friday, as part of our continuing celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Missus and Yours truly headed to our little paradise by the sea to officially bid November farewell.  Truth be told, there was not a lot happening at the Shore this past weekend, which is kinda, sorta just how we like it.  Other than a great few hours spent mid-day on Saturday hanging with Jill, Joe, Julia, and Rita (Sam and her #1 cousin had a romp and rumble on the beach...and all throughout Jill and Joe's house), Margaret and I spent our weekend relaxing.

My Saturday morning itinerary included a haircut and another fantastic conversation on civics, electoral politics, and current affairs with my barber, Pat, at his shop in Belmar.  Great haircut at an unbeatable price and, for free, ten to fifteen minutes of intelligent, thoughtful and thought-provoking conversation. I left there on Saturday morning not only looking much better than I did upon my arrival but, also, thinking that if I had more hair (so it took longer to cut each time I went) Pat and I might have time to iron out solutions to the world's problems.  

I cannot wake up at the beach and not go for a run...unless it is pouring rain.  Saturday, because I wanted to get to Pat's not later than 7:00 am to ensure I got a good spot on the sign-in line (no appointments at Pat's. Customers sign the sign-in sheet outside the front door and then gain entry one at a time), I went out for my run before sunrise.  My short, two-mile jaunt took me, as I try to make sure it always does, past the September 11 Memorial in Spring Lake.

It was roughly twenty-five minutes to sunrise when I stopped so I could take these few pictures, looking east over the Memorial and out to the horizon line. 

Sunday morning, Sam came with me. It was quite a bit colder than it had been on Saturday morning, even though I went out a bit later.  The sun was much closer to announcing its arrival on Sunday when she and I arrived at the Memorial than it had been when I was there the previous day.  Best photograph I got? 

She and I shared a moment of reflection with the Memorial behind us, representing the Alma mater and the Til Valhalla Project, which is an outfit that does great work and makes/sells really nice stuff, including the shirt I wore Sunday morning.

A hell of a nice way to say goodbye to November and to refuel in time to tackle whatever December shall present to us. 

-AK