Paul Elisha

Paul Elisha: A Tragic But True American War Story

Paul Elisha — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:30:00 +0000

In the wake of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander of U.S. Central Pacific Forces, was determined to learn where and how the enemy was preparing to strike again. To find out, he sent a roving, hand-picked strike force – a raider battalion of Marines commanded by Col. Evan Carlson and Lt. Col.

Paul Elisha: Change

Paul Elisha — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:35:00 +0000

This Commentator had decided to devote his essay for today to the two documents which have hung above the desk in his work space, since they were awarded to him, by then Governor Mario M. Cuomo, for his participation and help in achieving major ethics legislation in New York State, on August 7^th, 1987. He was going to note how time and trials had wrought changes, which made these documents less important mementos of prior, experience and would then, perhaps, look forward to another time, for yet another, more important change. This might even surpass what was then achieved, to legislate even more important advances in governmental ethics. Alas, it now appears that this will not occur.

Paul Elisha: This Is A Recording

Paul Elisha — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:29:03 +0000

When Scottish physicist James Clark Maxwell made the invention of the telephone possible, by unlocking the secret of electro-magnetic waves, in 1878, he playfully wrote of its humble appearance--- “Any disappointment was partially relieved, on finding it was really able to talk.”

Paul Elisha: The Unaffordable Loss

Paul Elisha — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:41:59 +0000

Paul Elisha: Courageous Voices Needed To Save America!

Paul Elisha — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:38:29 +0000

When the conservative-driven hierarchy of the U.S. Supreme Court dared to re-design the framework of corporate essence into a temporal twin of individual human qualities and characteristics, it did so without a schematic of definitive qualifications. As a result, the outcome was essentially left “up-for-grabs.” In American political parlance, that translates into the singular forensic phrase: “To the highest bidder.”

Paul Elisha: A Poem for Today's Collegiate Captives

Paul Elisha — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:08:45 +0000

Lately, this commentator has become acutely aware of a new, completely technologized collegiate generation. So on this Post-Spring-Break day, with the computerized I-Pod.

Paul Elisha: And now a word from our sponsor...

Paul Elisha — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:40:25 +0000

When Marshall McLuhan penned his now immortal phrase: “The medium is the message,” he could have added the ultimate truism of a then little-known Ellery Sedgwick: “In America, getting on in the world means getting out of the world we’ve known before.” Apparently, the world we’ve known, the American-bred world of ‘bigger means better,’ is now in full flight toward the target of Teensy-Weensy land, where everything of value will now be able to fit on the postage-stamp screen of a gadget grasped between thumb and forefinger and able to store or send the sum of any known or conceptualized quantity to an automated receptor of as yet undetermined size and shape.

A Bard's Eye View - Djelloul Marbrook

Paul Elisha — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:02:01 +0000

April is National Poetry Month. In this edition of A Bard's Eye View, WAMC's resident poet, Paul Elisha, sits down for a conversation with Djelloul Marbrook. They discuss Djelloul's work, Brushstrokes and glances.

Djelloul Marbrook's book of poems, Far from Algiers, won the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and the 2010 International Book Award in poetry. He worked for many years as a reporter and editor for newspapers including the Providence Journal, Elmira Star-Gazette, Baltimore Sun, Winston-Salem Journal, Washington Star, and others. He lives in New York s mid-Hudson Valley with his wife Marilyn.

Paul Elisha: Some seasonal thoughts on the new, the old... and how we handle both

Paul Elisha — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:00:46 +0000

One of the great unsolvable human mysteries, for this commentator, continues to be how, during the final days of one of the Judeo/Christian community’s most holy observances, leaders and followers of the most diverse political opinions and policies can put them casually aside, for the duration of their respective religious participations. Then, ignore the hallowed words and meanings they’ve mouthed, as they blithely return to the most miserably consequential and unsavory shenanigans, in their games of political one-upmanship.

Paul Elisha: Judeo-Christian Ambiguities, Beliefs and Choices

Paul Elisha — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:57:04 +0000

As the various disparate observances approach, which, by some series of absurdities has become a misnomer, now known as Judeo-Christian kinship, this commentator’s memory harks back to his childhood and the question he yearned to ask his biblically astute Grandfather but never dared: “Why is it that at the end of the Passover Seder, at the final ‘Amen,’ does everyone fervently respond: “Next year in Jerusalem!”?