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My Last Hours with my Father
He struggled to lift his arm and place his hand over my badge. At about three o’clock in the morning, I decided to visit him in the hospital. He was seventy-nine years old and he would die in three hours. I was on my way home from a late night at work, still in my…
Read MoreFox on the Beach – We Just Move the Rocks – May 4, 2022
As most of our Rockaway residents probably know, they have been doing significant work on the beach, building rock jetties to try to stop the erosion. A few months ago, during an early morning walk on the boardwalk, I stopped to talk to a few of the construction workers. They were standing together chatting, just…
Read More“Always will be”
On a cruise ship, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, I came up from downstairs and Marcella was sleeping. I woke her up for a moment that we spoke only a few words. I told her that the ship was rocking and the waters were rough, but she said that she knew that. I told her…
Read MoreFox On The Beach – The Commander – April 1, 2022
A wonderful thing about life is that people touch us along the way and bring us the gifts that last long after they leave us. I was in a classroom on the second floor of the 61st Precinct, Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, the day after I graduated from the Police Academy, in December 1981. Speakers…
Read MoreWords Matter
I have learned that after we experience something in life and we look back, we have a clearer understanding of what actually happened. During the last two years police officers have been vilified, assaulted and murdered at levels we have not seen in decades. Today, our hearts are broken as our city and nation mourns…
Read MoreFinding the American Dream
There is so much we share in humanity, and so much that each of us share in this amazing American experience. Each of us – or our ancestors – picked up their lives from places all over the world, sometimes at great risk, with nothing but the clothes they wore, and came here to find…
Read MoreFox on the Beach – Purposeful Moments – Tears of Humanity – December 03, 2021
A couple of years ago I spent a few solemn hours visiting the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites in Hawaii. It’s a visit I will never forget, and its profound impact stays with me. This week, we will again remember and honor those American soldiers and sailors who died that day, 80 years ago. 2,400 were…
Read MoreMy “Other” Birthday
On January 8, 2018 – a day I call my “other” birthday – I retired from the NYPD after 37 years of service. My career was amazing, a true journey, emotionally and spiritually. I experienced the greatest honors, and inspirations and joy, as well as some of the deepest pain, that many cannot imagine. In…
Read MoreA Gift, Like No Other
In 2016 and 2017 I would listen to the audiobook by Wayne Dyer, “Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life”, over and over again, when I walked on the boardwalk in Rockaway. The book is a collection of his interpretations of the “Tao Te Ching”, written by Lao Tzu in the 4th Century BC. It…
Read MoreOur Life
On the beach, at water’s edgeThe ocean is calmSoft wavesA few cargo ships miles awayDarkness but for the MoonShining her light on the water below Look up, stars fill the skyA shooting star just nowAnd our sister planetsMars just to the left of the MoonTo my right, Jupiter and SaturnAnd the Milky Way Beauty, peace…
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