Mr. Harold Green - Leo Hero: Facta Non Verba

When Leo High School welcomes Moms, Dads, Students and Staff, the bags of Mickey D's cast-off paper and plastic, battalions of styrofoam trays with chicken bones, legions of Frito-Lay parcels, squads of empty pints of Bumpy Face Seagrim's Gin, scraps of Sun Times Redlines and wet matted bits of penny saver coupon bundles are no where to be seen on the grounds.

Elves must pick up and toss the detritus of modern urban thoughtlessness and 'disappear it' into City of Chicago waste bins on our 79th Streetcape.

This morning I traveled from my home in Morgan Park six miles to the south and west of Leo High School, up Western Avenue (plowed and somewhat salted), east on 87 Street (plowed and somewhat salted) and north on Racine ( unplowed, nor salted) to 79th Street east ( (plowed and salted) and into the Leo Parking Lot ( unplowed at 4:45 AM).

I got out of the Malibu and said my morning Leo Memorare and noticed that the sidewalks and pathways around the school were already cleared.

When snow blankets the pathways and sidewalks, some miracle men must have bolted from their quilty blankets in the Sixteen Degree frost of the morning and cleared  our winter waves of white stuff.

No, my dears, Mr. Harold Green and Army veteran and a family man with the strength of eight lesser mortals did that.

Harold shoveled all of Leo's campus and then cleared the CTA benches for people who wait to swipe their hard-bought Ventra Cards for travel to work and school - not in Harold Green's job description. With all of that done - Harold will drive to Beecher, Illinois, South Holland, Roseland, Brainard and back to Leo High School with twelve students.  Now, some mincing person might offer, " Well, that's his job."

Mr. Harold Green gets to work at Leo High School at around 4AM - rain, shine, snow and trouble: Never late, never absent. During the day, while perched on my rump in the Development cubicle, I see Mr. Harold Green haul, lift, fix and fetch in and out of the school - 'Go to Menards: Get coffee for visitors; Jump Start my Car . . .' and ,one day, just prior to Leo's Annual Veterans Observance I received this inter-office memo :

Pat,

1.  Harold Green will pick up coffee.

3.  Harold Green will set up 3-4 rows of chairs.

4.  Harold Green will set up podium and sound system.

5.  I spoke to Mrs. Latifi and she will have NHS students greet and help older veterans cross the street.

7.  Mrs. Hill will have 1-4 students sing the National Anthem.

Thanks,

Well, it is his job, after all.

Yes, it is.  Have a nice day, Cupcake.

Mr. Harold Green is the Leo High School go-to-guy that educators and most otherwise nice people rarely notice.

I'm not so nice.  I notice.

Harold Green is my idea of a mythological Titan.

Harold Green expects to do his work.  That is all that Harold Green needs to say about it.

Rahm Emanuel's Sophisticated Snow Finances

Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to raise fines against businesses that don't shovel sidewalks as part of his 2016 budget.
The proposal, part of the annual city management ordinance, would hike the potential fine from $50 to $500. Emanuel also wants to increase fines for anyone piling snow in a fashion that blocks the public way — including bike lanes and racks, bus stops or building entrances — from a minimum of $25 and a maximum of $100 to a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $500.
Such penalties are rarely enforced, however. The city issued just 226 tickets for snow removal issues during the winter of 2014-15, according to the Department of Transportation. Ninety percent of those were issued to business owners or multiunit residential buildings.
Emanuel also introduced language to tie fees for heavy truck permits to the consumer price index, so they would increase or decrease each year depending on the rate of inflation. Currently, the cost for an overweight truck permit is $50 to $150 for a single trip or $500 to $2,250 monthly, according to city records.
The full City Council is set to vote on Emanuel's overall budget plan Oct. 28.( emphases my own) Chicago Tribune

Last Spring Chicago had an opportunity to bid Rahm Emanuel a hearty and genuine God Speed!  The Chicago media, Axelrod Productions, The Shakman Blessed  Exempted Executive Appointees City and County level and their families ans retainers  at command, ginned up a perfect storm of I AM WITH RAHM beat down on the opposition candidate for mayor, Jesus Chuy Garcia. 

So egregious were these Axelrodian memes and tropes that even the complacent and complicit Chicago Tribune seemed shamed enough to offer this non-apology.

The mayor and his allies have criticized Garcia for not offering enough specifics on how he'd lead the city. Despite that, the ad opens by claiming Garcia has "made $1.9 billion in spending promises," suggesting that amounts to "$1,900 in additional taxes for the average homeowner." The commercial then raises the question of how Garcia would pay for the alleged promises and ends with clips of Garcia saying his campaign was conducting research on city finances and would look at "creative sources of financing."
The ad closes by flashing the text, "Creative sources of financing? Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh" indeed.

I never once heard Garcia offer to increase taxes on City services, much less do away with them.

Nor, do I recall his, in Bruce Rauner's mewling sop to his wine-purchasing pal Rahm, offer of 'sophisticated financing' via our Parks, natural resources, or human caused terrorism against Bike Lanes.

Rahm Emanuel won, after telling each and every mope in Chicago that he was a changed man.

Yep, changed up a storm.

Chicago's Lake Michigan Lake water costs us much more to drink, wash, rinse and flush.  Our Parks were handed over to Marty Nesbitt, George Lucas and other corporatist bundlers of Rahm and Obama to come and snow that avoids the manual labor and sweat of eighty year old Mrs. Wanda Skutnik owner of Pierogi Queens' Eats of 1440 N. Greenview, Apt Z-Frank will cost old Wanda a lung.

Violations will be ZipCode Cited and fines will be politically analyzed for activist blow back.

For the last twenty years, my route to Leo High School has been the same - from Morgan Park to Gresham - via north on Western Ave. to 87th Street; east on 87th Street to Racine; north on Racine to 79th Street; east on 79th to Sangamon and a sharp right hand turn into the Leo Faculty and visitor parking lot,  after I unlock the gate, of course.

Racine from 87th Street to 79th Street is the home of no less than twenty eight (28) churches located in buildings that used to house businesses.  There is a smattering of businesses ( two bars: The Junction and Holloway's Hideaway) a dollar store, a liquor store, two car washes, an auto repair shop, an urban clothing store, a gas station, and the Paul Cuffee Elementary Academy) - all of the remaining buildings house churches and most only offer services on Sunday.

In winter, the sidewalks disappear under snow and ice until the Spring thaw.  Residents walk between the east and west curbs of Racine - at their peril and if the 17th Ward managed to plow Racine.  I am very careful not to hit people trying to get to the CTA bus turn-around on east side of Racine at 86th Street in the cold, windy dark of a Chicago morning.  Very often I will offer pedestrians a neighborly ride to 79th Street ( Hookers/Trannies and ne'er-do-wells of unaffiliated gang membership excluded) - working folks.

The reason why, the sidewalks remain uncleared of snow is due to the fact that the Pastors of the 28 store-front churches do not live in the 17th Ward.  Their parsonages are in Flossmoor, Orland Park, New Lennox, Matteson and the less-successful in Country Club Hills. If it snows on Monday, there is good chance that there are six layers of frosty precipitations layering the sidewalks and easements on Racine Avenue.  Snow removal? Not until the pastor, or his sons have an opportunity to check in on the church.

These Pastors will be considered business owners? Uh-Oh!  Churches comprise the bulk of this Racine Avenue Business community.

Well, Rahm is sophisticated enough to parse "businesses" with homeowners - "Chicago is ALL of Our Business!"  I can hear Coon-eyed Mayor hiss.  " Ticket 'em all!" He will and shortly.

You can make book on the fact that the 50 City Council Nodders and Windbags never gave a thought to Racine Avenue ( 87th-79th Streets inclusive), nor could care less.  Rahm wants the tax and the tax will happen, because Chicago was With Rahm.

I would venture to say that  the 28 pastors of the Racine Avenue churches ( 87th-79th Streets inclusive) will remain un-ticketed for Rahm's new Force Majeure  Taxation on Snow.

No, I fully expect that business owners and very shortly homeowners from what deemed to be middle class-ish Zip Codes will be ticketed and summoned to court.  TS, as Chicagoans are wont to say.

Justice has nothing to do with Progressive Global Sanctuary City like Chicago.

Tales of the South Side: Breakfast at Tiffany's Reviewed by Kondike " Moose" Cholak

Man, I took a beating in April of 1965. That was not my best year by far.  The Nun I had for the tail-end of Sixth Grade at Little Flower told my folks that I was 'retarded, obstinate, disorganized and destined for bad end.' To say that I was a miscreant little jerk is not a stretch and I remain less than anal retentive in my assault upon tasks. However, bad end?  I think not.  I have been saved by great folks.

Immediately following one of my numerous extra curricular Pre-May Crowning beat-downs by Sister Beautificus, RSM, I accompanied two pals Tom Scanlon and Bernie Weber eastward in  the alley between 80th & &79th Street.. In their company,  I took my first cigarette, actually my second, my first I got from Uncle Mike.  This was my first outside of the tribal circle.  My companions were considered a bad lot in the common-room of the school's convent,  whose families lived in the apartments along Ashland Avenue on the Little Flower side.  One guy, Tom, is now a retired school psychologist and the other, Bernie, became a much decorated Chicago fireman, also retired.  We all three had written satirical essays on the upcoming May Crowning, which offended Sister Beautificus, who asked me, 'What would your Father say if he saw this?'  I waited a second, timing is everything, " Who you think wrote most of its, S'ter?"  Flesh and bone was now open for business. Messy desks, slipshod arithmetic no SRA work done in weeks built the hooded Black and White into a Torrent of Spring Fury!  I took it on the cheeks, the ears, the snot-locker and even the gums, as did my boon chums.  We celebrated this blood-bond with a pack of Chesterfields snitched from Tom's Mom's purse. 

Upon the celebratory light-up, Bernie's Dad's car came bouncing through the then unpaved alley at a great clip.  Old Man Weber had seen us in the act,

 " Bernie, get your rump home now!  Immediately, if not sooner.  Hickey - I'll see your old man, when he gets off work and stops at Billy Ellis's.  Hi Tom!  How's your Mom?"

Mrs. Scanlon was a widow who worked for the Phone Company over on Stewart and was considered by every pater familias to be easy on the eyes. .

"Fine, Mr. Weber, "  Scanlon, obviously off the hook, spirited the rumpled pack of Chesterfield's in my jacket pocket and tore ass south at the intersection of Marshfield and the alley.  Mr. Weber glared at me, " You're as big a smart-ass as your Uncle Bart.  I told Bernie to stay the Hell away from you. Bernie, beat it!  You, Mr. Hickey, make yourself scarce."

Swell. A brace of great communications concerning the fruit of his loins to candy Dad's ears, prior to his twenty minutes at home before he had to go his other job at the Beverly Theatre.  Nun Battery followed by the manly art of snitching a nail.  "I am well and truly screwed," I determined with no prodding from the audience, whatsoever. Smart Lad!  I fired up another smoke and walked across Ashland Ave. to the Highland Theater - home of the Hercules versus Viet Cong and other B Movies.. There was always sexy and salacious movie posters to heighten a lad's trip to the Saturday Confessional.  Always, a grand idea to tempt oneself.

 I stood in the ticket bay of Highland Theatre on Ashland and smoked another Chesterfield with the existential fatalism of Sartre, jilted by some swell French Dame in tight sweater and tighter black slit skirt..  I looked at ads of upcoming movies that I would never see.  A gruff but familiar voice assaulted my pornographic musings, " Spit out that butt, Kid." Jesus!!!!!!!

Cop? Uncle?  No. Ignatius the school janitor?  Nope. I turned to see furrowed brows and dashing side burns, bushy eye brows and Goliath-like terror of none other than Klondike Moose Cholak - The Wrestling Foe of Man and Beast!.

The man eclipsed the waning western sun beaming on the tar roof of Billy Ellis' Wooden House, where the Old Man stopped for a Hamms and a Vinegar and Oil ( Seagrams VO Canadian).  The Star of Saturday afternoon pre-Confessional Wrestling, brought to me by Ben's Auto Sales on South Western Ave., snapped,  " Weed's for sissies, book-worms and sob-sisters, kid."

Uh,uh stammered I ,  " I just tried 'cuz the guys and me . . ."

Moose Cholak glared at me, " Hey, save it for Aunt Gertie!  You wanna end up being be some pencil neck, no good for anybody, salad eater, Boy?"

Given my proclivities of the tongue, I was more than familiar with the rhetorical question at this tender age and checked my natural tendency go all Noel Coward with Klondike Moose Cholak.

Rather, I penitently answered properly, "No sir."

With folded arms and a broad smile of avuncular approval, Klodike Moose Cholak ordered me to pick up the cast away cylinder of sin and put it in the cement ashtray near the curb like a good boy and then waxed poetic, " Breakfast at Tiffany's,  kid. That's what smoking'll do for you and our whole county. You know, that they made it a movie a couple years back with that skinny broad from My Fair Lady.? Now, pay attention! The guy who wrote the story about that  skirt what liked to shop and hang around with fairies and rich creeps, started smoking at your age.  I saw him on Suskind's TV show, when I couldn't go back to sleep last week and it stuck with me.  This tiny little bald  guy with a pixie voice said his mom was some hillbilly hooker and that he started smoking as a little guy and it stunted his growth, made his hair fall out and talk like a girl. That's no way, Kid. Now,  where's that saloon what's called The Wooden House?"

I pointed to the northwest corner of 79th & Ashland and corrected the wrestler, " We call it Billy Ellis's around here."

With a smile, Moose offered this valediction, " You got some lip on you kid. A  lip on you that' would trip a pig."

How could one come to bad end in this urban Arcadia?

I have not had a cigarette, since breakfast.

Fabulous Fib : Manya Brachear's "Illinois Clergy Endorse Gay Marriage Bill"

Manya - The Seeker
View Larger Map Each dot represents a church and there are 10,360 churches in Chicago and a thick number in Auburn Gresham

More than 250 faith leaders, many from Chicago, back measure that could face vote in January -Manya Brachear the Chicago Tribune's Seeker

And you shall find that Manya Brachear numbers of support for Greg Harris's Gay Marriage Bill are underwhelming.

Consider this, The Archdiocese of Chicago which represents and shepherd's more than 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake Counties numbers 3,325 clergy persons on its rolls alone:

• Diocesan Priests (including active and retired): 791
• Religious Priests: 710
• Religious Brothers: 250
• Women Religious: 1,781
• Permanent Deacons: 559
• Certified Pastoral Associates: 164

Total of 3, 325 persons numbered as clergy within the Roman Catholic  Archdiocese of Chicago alone.

 Manya's total smacks up a tiny 7% of that clergy demographic alone.  Now add to the total of Catholic clergy the reported 1,190 clergy of other denonminations for a total of 4,515 that percenatge drops to 5.7%



Liars figure and figures do lie - Now, this I know. There are 10,360 churches listed in the city of Chicago, each with a pastor/clergy person doing the shout-out to the Lord.  I dare say that most are not Catholic. Now, that makes the number of clergy listed as a bit light. If there are 10,360 and only 4,515 clergy persons -what's up with that, Manya?  That head-scratcher needs a Seeker.

Take a peek at the map of Churches in Auburn Gresham up above.

Let's consider one Chicago neighborhood that I am familiar with -Auburn Gresham.   I drive each morning from Morgan Park to Leo High School and I take either 79th Street from Western Ave east, or 87th Street to Racine.  Between 87th Street and 79th Street on Racine alone there more than 20 African American Churches operated by clergy persons and that is a matter of a mere eight(8) city blocks. Here's the pay-off there are 10,360 churches listed in Chicago and a very thick number of those in this neighborhood alone.

I dare say, there might be one or two pastors in this demographic in full communion with Manya and Boss Terry Cosgrove and Representatives Heather Stearns and Greg Harris and media mogul Fred Eychaner, but I seriously doubt that the other 10,358 Chicago pastors favor Gay Marriage.  I could be wrong.

The Seeker and the Chicago Tribune, as well as the Gay Community are very happy that 260 clergy support Gay Marriage.  That is fabulous.

Leo H. S. Retires # 91 Football Jersey Don Flynn and Neighborhood Says Goodbye to a Landmark

Leo 58, St. Ignatius 54 was the final score of the varsity basketball game last night in Leo's iconic Brother Finch Gym (3rd Floor).

The St. Ignatius Freshman and Sophomore teams soundly beat our Leo Lions by 9 points apiece, but the gents of the varsity saved Leo from a an Iggy Sweep.

They had help from the spirit of # 91 Donald F. Flynn, Class of 1957. Don Flynn went home to Christ in October after decades of powerful support to his teammate Bob Foster and Leo High School. Don Flynn was a self-made mega-millionaire, who never forgot that he was a poor kid from St. Kilian's Parish.

On the football fields of Shewbridge and those defended by Mount Carmel, St. George, St. Rita, Fenwick, Mendel, and before a crowd of tens of thousands of fans in Soldier Field, Don Flynn scared the livers out of scores of Catholic and public school football players.

With Don Flynn's passing, Leo marked the passing of great heart and meaty set of hands always ready to give more and more. Therefore, before the start of the varsity game, Leo President Dan McGrath paid tribute to Don's brother Bob, his son Kevin and his wife Susan and his four grandchildren, and Don's faithful and long-time secretary and friend Yvonne Sperandeo, as well as thirty plus friends and family members and permanently retired Leo football jersey number 91.

Having bested the Lions at the lower levels, St. Ignatius gave the varsity a contest Don Flynn would be proud of - taking an early lead in the double digits. By the start of third quarter, the Lions methodically chipped away at those numbers and gave Leo and the Flynn family a well-earned victory.

East of Leo, the old Walgreens Building on the south east corner of 79th & Halsted collapsed onto Halsted. Four people were injured, but no loss of life, thanks be to God. The men and women of the Chicago Police Department's 6th District are keeping people safe as they always do.

79th Street has changed since the early 1900's when that beautiful terra cotta bedecked building dominated the corner - Franks Department store was torn down years ago. Leo helped the city of Chicago take down a bock of abandoned buildings between Sangamon and Morgan Streets. St. Leo Parish was closed and a treatment center for veterans stands under the Lombardy bell tower of the church. The Chapel of St. Leo in Leo High School that once hosted the over-flow crowd of Catholic worshippers is now the cafeteria for Leo students who dine under a crystal chandelier that once loomed above the altar with the north wall allowing light through stained glass windows dedicated to Our Lady.

The mission remains the same. Leo students, like Don Flynn, have the opportunity to rise above circumstances and challenges.

Things disappear and sometimes collapse. The spirit of Catholic values are here to stay.

Homicides Keep Coming - Auburn Gresham Killing Zones

Last week Chicago Tribune's Tracy Schwartz presented some of the homicides in Auburn Gresham neighborhood - the home to Leo High School. I am here nearly every day.

Savages kill because they can - it does not require Emile Zola or Enrico Fermi to figure that out. Guns are used because they are easy to get and the quickest and most effective means of dispatching another human being to the Other Side; however, Savages ( bi-peds void of any moral sense or understanding)will use knives, machettes, planks, the odd piece of scrap metal, or huge chunks of concrete to effect another's demise. Guns mostly are used. Guns kill people in much the same manner that pencils fail examinations.

Savages are parsed by opinion columnists as later day Jean Valjean's or petted as half-wits. Lawyers take up their cause along with editorial boards - if it bleeds it leads!

Ms. Swartz offered a fine report -

Auburn Gresham saw its 2010 homicide toll reach a dozen victims this week, a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data found.

A 33-year-old man was shot to death Sunday in the 8300 block of South Hermitage Avenue in the Far South Side community area, police said.

All of Auburn Gresham's 12 homicides this year have been fatal shootings, RedEye determined. The victims, 11 males and one female, ranged in age from 15 to 44, RedEye found.

Citywide, fatal shootings were recorded in North Lawndale, Oakland and Washington Heights in the last week, RedEye determined. Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed Saturday in South Shore, police said.

Nineteen homicides have been recorded so far this month, RedEye found. Police recorded 58 homicides in July last year, RedEye found.
tswartz@tribune.com
Victims
July 15 – Anthony Cox, a 16 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Englewood.
> Read more about this homicide.
July 15 – Jeremiah Sterling, a 16 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in West Pullman.
> Read more about this homicide.
July 11 – Jerome Cole, a 33 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Auburn Gresham.
> Read more about this homicide.
July 10 – Kemanuel Montgomery, a 23 year old black male, caused by a stabbing in South Shore.
> Read more about this homicide.
July 9 – Eric Hughes, a 21 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Washington Heights.
> Read more about this homicide.

People get slaughtered, lawyers net 30%, papers sell and idiots get re-elected.