‘What if Northeast Philadelphia seceded from the city?:’ Philos Adelphos Irrealis submission

A submission I made to a book anthology out of the noted Kelly Writers House has been accepted.

The collection, called Philos Adelphos Irrealis, was meant to portray various states of Philadelphia that never came to pass — in 200 words or less. I focused mine on the aborted effort in the late 1980s for Northeast Philadelphia to secede from the city and form its own municipality.

After some discussion with a dear friend, I decided to show something that might not have happened if that secession occurred. I also decided to do what I knew best (and what I thought would be unique to the collection): offer a submission in traditional newspaper style.

See the submission below and head over to the University City staple to purchase a copy for $5 to get a variety of local writerly takes on the prompt.

A Philadelphia Police officer was not honored today for saving the life of a 24-year-old father of two in a West Philadelphia shooting last week, authorities say.

Police Officer Daniel Stern, not of the 16th district, was not driving his patrol car west on the 5100-block of Haverford Street early Thursday, when he did not see a fistfight spill out of a corner nuisance bar. Stern did not discharge his firearm at the 19-year-old alleged assailant when he reportedly pulled his own firearm from his waistband, a police spokesman said. Stern, not a four-year veteran of the force, did not injure the assailant in the leg and did not bring him into custody.

The identities of neither the 24-year-old who was not saved nor the 19-year-old who was not caught were released. The 24-year-old will not celebrate his daughter’s fifth birthday next month and will not attend the Community College of Philadelphia next fall.

Stern did not become a police officer, like his father and grandfather, because his native Northeast section of the city seceded in 1991, he says. Stern was not given a commendation by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay at a ceremony that was not held at City Hall.

Photo courtesy of Jim MacMillan here. Watch some of my writing process here, by seeing other draft versions.