The Notebook

Omar Aleman
11 May 2021
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notebook

On June 12, 1942, a young girl received a present from her parents that became the subject of international recognition. It was a red, checkered autograph book given as a gift in celebration of her thirteenth birthday. She began writing on it two days later, and it eventually became her diary. Less than a month passed when her sister received a summons to report to a Nazi work camp in Germany, which prompted the family to go into hiding near their home in Amsterdam. They spent over two years in isolation until August, 1944, when they were discovered and sent […]

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Who Do We Seek For Justice?

Omar Aleman
1 Apr 2021
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“I believe in America.” These words begin a 175-minute saga that is considered one of the greatest movies ever produced. Amerigo Bonasera was a Sicilian-American and the proprietor of a funeral home in Little Italy besides being an acquaintance of Vito Corleone, whose wife Carmela was the godmother of Amerigo’s only child, Maria. Despite this bond, the mortician decided to keep some distance from the Godfather for fear that a Mafia connection would be detrimental to his business. Things suddenly changed when Maria was brutally assaulted and nearly raped by two young men. They were subsequently released on a suspended […]

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justice

The World According To James

Omar Aleman
9 Mar 2021
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James

“Get yourself a stack of 3 X 5 cards, and come see me.” Dr. Wright was my favorite college professor, by far. We formed a friendship born in the classroom and developed at the baseball stadium, where I played and he cheered. While he taught and I ran the bases, somehow we became “equals.” So when he asked me to help hone his Spanish speaking skills by conversing with him exclusively in my native language and I gleefully agreed, he sat in motion an event that has molded my life to this day.   The business of cards I sat […]

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Doing Life While Doing Time

Omar Aleman
2 Feb 2021
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The whole thing seemed so futile. They were down three touchdowns with less than a minute to play. The quarterback got the ball and hurled it downfield as far as possible hoping that one wearing his jersey would catch it. But if he did, so what? There was not enough time to make a comeback; why not just “take a knee” and leave it at that? Yet, time and time again this scenario is played out during fall weekends. The reason given… competitors do not stop playing until the clock strikes zero.   Clock management It is interesting to note […]

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overtime

The Hardest Thing

Omar Aleman
21 Jan 2021
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Baseball. No need to ponder, dig deep in the confines of my brain or compare notes; hands down… baseball, that’s what I thought. That’s the hardest thing I had ever done, by far. For most, the answer was sort of a letdown, particularly if they were privy to my sordid past. But, for all my colorful endeavors, it came down to the “national pastime.” The hardest thing  Nothing, absolutely nothing, can compare in degree of difficulty to hitting a round ball thrown by an expert hurler standing on a small hill 60 feet six inches from me with my only […]

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My Faithbook Account

Omar Aleman
9 Jul 2020
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Both of my cars are garage dwellers. The tools needed for any project are my neighbor’s, and more often than not he ends up providing the means, the expertise and the labor, given my complete disdain for creating or putting things together. This should make me an “ideas guy,” but that’s another story. So, the box arrives, and to my concern, it necessitates some minimal assembly. Things deteriorate when the instructions are written in a foreign language; I vainly try to assemble it by sight, which only the sight of my neighbor can make right. I feel lost. Altar boy […]

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Faithbook

“…And Justice For All”

Omar Aleman
1 Apr 2019
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justice

Arthur Kirkland was a respected defense attorney in Baltimore; Henry T. Fleming was a District Court Judge in the same city; they disliked each other intensely. The judge customarily and arbitrarily ruled against the lawyer on shaky grounds. One day the judge was accused of brutally assaulting a young woman and incredibly asked Arthur to defend him in court. When the lawyer refused, Judge Fleming blackmailed him with information regarding a past client-confidentiality issue that would cause the disbarment of Mr. Kirkland. The judge, who admitted committing the crime to Arthur, figured that having someone who loathed him as his […]

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The Midwest Meets the Middle East

Omar Aleman
11 Jun 2018
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“Can’t wait to see snow,” was my reaction when I learned that I had to travel to Chicago on a business trip at the ripe age of 22. I took a night flight, and although cold, the drive to the hotel was pleasant. A date at the federal courthouse awaited me the next morning, and since my lodging was only a couple of blocks from my destination, I decided to “hoof it.” And there it was… white, wet, cold snow. However, this stuff had no resemblance to what I had seen on television. Instead of falling from the sky, the […]

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midwest

Grandpa Knows Best

Omar Aleman
1 May 2018
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best

He did not have degrees on the wall, a couch or charge $100 per hour, but was a great psychologist and counselor. What he did have was a perennial cigar in his mouth, thinning hair and a constant penchant for a strong cup of coffee. He was a successful cigar maker, community leader and an occasional liar… to me! He “stretched the truth” around me, and I am the better for it. He was a “game changer”; the majority of my few good qualities are rooted in his teachings. “Abuelo” knows best “Let’s go touch the moon,” he said, as […]

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No Home Here

Omar Aleman
8 Feb 2018
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 The successful businessman married the peasant maid much to the disdain of his family and friends, and soon thereafter I was born. He passed five years later, which led my mom and I to leave the country and move to the U.S. Several years later, my mom married a man lacking the sophistication and charisma of my dad; soon, however, I begrudgingly had to admit that these two immigrants with third grade educations and no knowledge of English were pretty good at parenting. However, they could not “hold a candle” to a teenager with vast “intellectual superiority,” knowledge of the […]

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