Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn;
A sudden friendship, while with stretched-out rays
They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze.
Polished in courts, and hardened in the field,
Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled,
Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood:
Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,
In hours of peace content to be unknown.
And only in the field of battle shown:
To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined,
Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind. Joseph Addison The Campain (1704)
I took this photo of Cardinal George and lawyer, advocate, Leo Board member, Fox News Legal Analyst and easy on the eyes tough Jewish Chick, Tamara Holder in 2011 at Leo High School.
Tamara Holder no longer lives in Chicago full-time, because her talents require that she spend more time in the Big Apple, where she works for Fox News and runs a sports analysis site, as well make stand-up comedy appearances. Tamara continues to offer legal, financial and marketing advice as a member of Leo Advisory Board. Tamara is Jewish and proudly practices her faith.
In May of 2011, Francis Cardinal George became the first Archbishop of Chicago to visit the young men of Leo High School, since George Cardinal Mundelein blessed the corner stone this school on 79th & Peoria wing of the school in 1926.
Our Advisory board consisted of Irish and African American males blessed by God with talents and faces for radio, until Tamara accepted Leo President Dan McGrath and Board Chairman Bob Sheehy's challenge to serve. Immediately our Board's looks improved.
Tamara meets Cardinal George: in the backdground from the left Big Shoulder Fund Tom Zbierski, Advisory Board Chair Bob Sheehy and Leo Hall of Fame Alumnus and Teacher Bill Hession.
Cardinal George and Tamara took to one another immediately - both are very smart, honest and good-hearted persons. Joseph Addison had it right - great souls by instinct to each other turm.
Leo High School opened the school year a week ago. The school welcomed the freshman class and their families and greeted the returning Lions and their folks.
Absent from the returns was a young gent who earned the respect and affection of every soul in this eight-seven year old Catholic high school for males that has been the home to young guys from Chicago's south side. Many of those Leo Lions are now many of the most successful and generous leaders in every vocation. CEO's who were once poor kids who lived along the tracks that run through Auburn, Gresham, Englewood, Brainerd and Chatham received a Leo education that is fundamentally different from any public or charter school. The difference is that God's law is the foundation of all studies and activities.
For 87 years, poor kids, as well as the sons of blue-collar parents learned that a Leo High School education is earned and owned jointly with the generations that have gone before them. A Leo Education still means what it did to the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, the Irish, the Italians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, the Swedes, the Germans, the Mexicans and the African Americans who walked through these portals on 79th Street.
Most of our students receive some financial aid, just as many had in the Great Depression, but no one gets everything. There are no free rides. Families and students invest time, treasure and talent to earn a Leo diploma.
One guy who is not a particularly bookish student, or a hot athlete, or a magnificent singer, or the reincarnation of St. Francis family could not afford the most modest stab at meeting tuition. He was going to a public school. That left a huge hole in the heart of the Lion.
President Dan McGrath had men drive over to the kid's home and we took him out for lunch at Schaller's Pump ( owned by Leo Hall of Fame 1943 Alum Jackie Schaller) in order to negotiate an important man back to Leo High School.
The school had allocated financial aid to all of our registered students, but as is always the case, more is needed because financial situations change like Midwest weather. We told our guy " You worry about your studies; let us worry about how to pay for them. You are a Leo Man.'
We left it at that. Dan paid for lunch and we headed to the parking lot. An eighty-seven year old man was slowly working his way out of his car - it was none other than Louie Knox - Leo '42. Mr. Knox was a member of Darby's Rangers and had the honor of "liberating Rome" days before General Mark Clark and his Army. When the Rangers were wiped out Mr. Knox became one of America's pioneer Special Forces warriors fighting in Italy and Southern France with a mixed Canadian/American commando unit. Lou Knox -Leo '42 throws out the first pitch at Comiskey Park.
Louie Knox met our guy patted in on his shoulders and admonished him 'to be a Leo Man.' We dropped the Leo Man off at home - now, how to find help.
One can go to the well much too often. No one knows that more than a person who is tasked with raising money. We have Go-to-guys in the hundreds( e.g.Sam Leno Class of 1963 spearheaded this summer's transportation campaign The Lion Express to Opportunity) but there are only so many dollars. Leo works 24/7 to widen the well and dig in new locations.
One of our Advisory board members and the only woman among a thick baker's dozen middle aged African American and Irish American males who look like the cast of Deadwood, is an exceptionally tall, athletic, smart, witty and beautiful Jewish woman - Tamara Holder. (See? Tamara is Just one of Guys!. . .Not.)
Tamara is a criminal defense attorney, as well as a national television figure.
Tamara is a guys-gal. She has not a drop of pretense coursing through her veins, despite being one of the sexiest women in America. She holds her own with the Brothers and Boyos who tend to be the polar opposites of NPR-types. Tamara delights and dazzles the Alumni with an occasional visit to Alumni meetings at Father Perez Knights of Columbus and treats inner city kids who have never ventured north of Chinatown to lunches at Harry Carray's.
I called Tamara in between her appearances on Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity as a Fox Television Legal Analyst. I told Tamara about our guy, Like a Lou Knox, Ms. Holder took command.of the objective and reached out to public and private pals.
The hole in the Lion's heart is filled by a leggy girl who leads with her heart.
Tamara Holder, like WII hero Lou Knox, lives the Leo motto Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words - every day.
Listed at # 8 is Tamara Holder, Chicago Expungement Attorney, Fox Television Legal Analyst and Leo High School's only female Board Member.
Not listed as 'hottest' were the following Leo Board Members:
Bob Sheehy - Board Chairman
Dan McGrath -Leo President
Bill Holland - Leo Board and Mixed Martial Artist
Mike Joyce - Leo Board/Boxing Coach and Box Car Willie Imitator
Jack Fitzgerald - Leo Board/IHSA & CCL Hall of Famer and Pensioner
Rich Finn - Leo Board Member and Finn Ranger (semi-retired)
John Linehan - Leo Board Member and Bestselling Author and Swordsman
Mike Holmes - Leo Dean/Football Coach and Sport Woman's Magazine Centerfold 2000
Ken Mason - Leo Board Member and Waterford Crystal Collector
Bob Standring - Leo Board Member and Tony Award Winning Insurance Magnate
President Dan -'Got Back' McGrath, Leo Staffer and Campus Gargoyle Hickey, Pensioner Jack ' Had Tina Louise in '71' Fitzgerald and Coach Mike ' Smoothe Creme' Holmes did not make the list.
Cardinal George and Father Daniel Flens arrived at Leo HS at 9:30 AM met by a jowly employee of the archdiocese and Mr. Jeremy Clark of the Sophomore Class
After a visit to the Chapel of Leo High School His Eminence met the Leo dignitaries (L-R)Tamara Holder Leo Board, Alum Ben Nowakowski, Leo Board President Bob Sheehy and legendary Alumnus and legendary teacher/coach Bill Hessian
Cardinal George immediately thanked Jack Schaller Leo '43 for his gracious welcome and fabulous lunch at Schaller's Pump on March 1st.
The Cardinal had the rapt attention of every Leo Man with his remarks and blessing
The Cardinal was made a Leo Alumnus and Letterman
Tamara Holder showed His Eminence the past Principals and Leo Students of the Month
I will post more photos from this glorious day in Leo History:
The Cardinals talk to the student Body
The Alumni Presentations by President Emeritus Rich Furlong and the induction of Francis Cardinal George by Leo President Dan McGrath and Bob Sheehy to the Leo Lettermen ( traditionally known as Monogram Society) Club.
Nobody bullies like like a bully, who deeply and passionately believes that he has been bullied - a little corporal in Vienna, who avoided tobacco, alcohol, and bullets during WWI, found his art and lifestyle to be a laughing-stock to jeering Jews and callous Catholics and effeminate critics. It got better.
He went on to pen a world-wide best-seller about his personal struggle and became a transcendent post-political world leader.
It gets better, unless one and others happen to be au contraire. One can almost hear the smartly turned-out jack-booted progressive voices -Sie, nach rechts!Sienach links!
Dan Savage* is a Chicago boy who tells one and all that his lifestyle has made him feel that he was somehow outre; well, different, conspicuously, or grossly unconventional or unusual. Dan is homosexual. For that, Dan Savage has told every carbon foot-print within earshot, or the ability to read that he suffered from bullies.
The only human being, about whom I have some empirical knowledge, never bullied on this earth might possibly have been Swannie (circa - 1950-Present?) Swanie lived at 75th Pl. & Honore Street two houses south of the tracks. He bullied me, Al McFarland, Terry Smith, Larry Fiscelli, Jimmy & Leo Shea, my brother Whitey, the Lutherans Dave and Danny Krieger, The Hamilton Dairy drivers, Brother Sloane from Leo, the Two Mike Kellys, the Railroad Dicks, the Cops from Gresham, the Mercy Nuns, Clara Barton Grammar School, Msgr. Stephan McMahon, my Dad and his six brothers, the late Moose Skowron, three shifts at Donahue Steel on Damen, three shifts at Rheem water heater over by the Old Mill on the north side of the tracks, generations of Norway rats, stray dogs, and wild onions. Swannie-Invictus,intacta,etimproviso
Jesus was Bullied, Moses was Bullied, St. Paul was Bullied, Oscar Wilde both bullied and was Bullied, Ho Chi Minh was Bullied - hell, he was a dish-washer in a French restaurant, Mao was bullied, and even George Sanders was bullied . . .I think.
I hate bullies. Having been bullied I tried to be one myself and had my ass kicked wholesomely - not worth the trouble or the accompanying shame.
Bullies hate being confronted. I hectored, not bullied mind you, the sweet, smart, lovely and talented Tamara Holder due to my misunderstanding of her work in expunging criminal records. Ms. Holder set me straight and that is not reverse bullying. Ms. Holder gave me what for with the facts; we be friends. Ms. Holder holds what some would call Progressive points of view. I value my Catholic, anti-abortion, tribal, close-knit ethnic, pro-real labor beliefs. We believe in truths; we are not truth itself; that is bullying.
This is bullying and it is fully approved by the media, government and our current Justice Department**.
A few months ago, It seems to me that in order to clear the way for Rep. Greg Harris' Homosexual Marriage Campaign in Illinois, media types took shots at the Catholic Church and Catholics because of its and their Belief that Marriage is between a Man and a Woman, because a man and woman can procreate - breed, have children.
No less a bully than Neil Steinberg chastised Catholic High Schools for not sending students to see a play at the Steppenwolf Theatre that celebrated a gay girl bullied at a Catholic School.
Mesdames et Messieurs,Notreintimidentpeu idiot,Neil!
Catholic schools avoid Steppenwolf play on gay student bullied — at Catholic school
Most schools have some kind of anti-bullying program, though — since schools don’t like to acknowledge the existence of sex, either (parents tend to go crazy) —most of those programs don’t actually discuss sexuality, even though half of school bullying is against kids who are either gay or seen as gay. Neil Steinberg nsteinberg@suntimes.com March 6, 2012 6:24PM
Gee, and everybody loves Wagner! The opera guy! Wagner gave that little smokes and booze free vegan Viennese corporal paper-hanger the spirit and juice to show everyone that It Gets Better!
Why does Israel bully Old Dead Dick Wagner and not allow his tunes ( His music is better than it sounds - Mark Twain, a huge American bully) to get play ?
Must be something in Bible.
*Dan Savage was born to William and Judy Savage inChicago, Illinois.[6]He is ofIrishancestry.[7]The third of four children,[6]Savage was raised as aRoman Catholicand attendedQuigley Preparatory Seminary North, which he has described as "a Catholic high school in Chicago for boys thinking of becomingpriests."[8]Though Savage has stated that he is now "a wishy-washyagnostic" and anatheist,[9]he has said that he still considers himself "culturally Catholic."[8][10]Savage attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied theater and history.[6] As a theater director, Savage (working under the name "Keenan Hollahan") was a founder of Seattle's Greek Active Theater.[10] Much of the group's work has been queer recontextualizations of classic works, such as a tragicomicMacbeth with both the title character and Lady Macbeth played by performers of the opposite sex. In March 2001, he directed his own Egguus at Consolidated Works, a parody of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus which exchanged a fixation on horses for a fixation on chickens. Savage has not directed, produced, or performed in any productions since a 2003 production of Letters from the Earth, also at Consolidated Works, his trimmed version of Mark Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve, which received scathing reviews, including one from his own paper, "My Boss's Show Stinks".[11]Savage and his husband, Terry, have one adopted son, D.J.,[12] and were married in Vancouver, BC in 2005.[13][14]
** ARLINGTON— Hundreds of Texas educators, politicians and LGBT activists attended the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools and Communities to hear about the Obama administration’s efforts to fight bullying and prevent hate crimes and to discuss local progress. [...]
Holder said the administration has “created a record we can all be proud of” in terms of protecting LGBT rights and “a sense of momentum that today we stand poised to build upon.”
“This morning I’m proud to join you in affirming a very simple truth and renewing this administration’s commitment, as well as my own, to an essential idea that no one, no one, deserves to be bullied, harassed or victimized because of who they are, how they worship or, and hear it when I say it now, or who they love,” Holder said.
Holder said the “It Gets Better” campaign is more than a slogan, but something the administration is backing up with “robust action,” like the five-year settlement with the Anoka-Hennepin school district reached March 5.
Yesterday, I loaded the data on the first returns from Leo High School's Campaign Leo Fall/Winter direct mail campaign. Solid as always. The turn around is generally 24 hours after Rescigno's Rapid Mail Solutions and Harte and Sons Printing fired the load off to the U.S. Postal Service.
The early returns signal a husky hunk of much needed revenue to this inner city Catholic high school serving young men too tough to fall to the streets and too proud to allow events to determine their lives. Their parents are taking extra jobs to meet tuition.
Times, by the way, are very tough.
Yesterday, I also plugged in the amounts for the checks dropped off by 1970 Alumnus Bobby Standring from the Lions of Laughter comedy night at the Beverly Arts Center this past Saturday Night. As comic laureate Paul Kelly reminded his audience, "Handsome is as Handsome Do!"
There was a Leo High School Tradition going back to the 1940's, whenever a coach, teacher, or student made a speech before the entire student body and staff, for the Lions Universal to yell approval for his words with shouts of " Handsome Bobby! Handsome Willie! Handsome Jimmy!"
Handsome, Paul Kelly reminded us on Saturday night, was an ironic recognition of our public faces. Man we are some ugly Dudes! However, in reflection of our deeds pushed by our hearts we go from beasts to beauties. Handsome Lions!
As is his custom, Leo President Dan McGrath wanders the cafeteria during the lunch hours and offers a "a touch of Danny" in the day.
From table to table, he greets the Lions Universal with praise, encouragement, and most of all thanks. They are the reasons that 400 people packed Beverly Arts Center on Saturday night and also packed envelopes from Zip Codes far beyond 60620 with checks of $25, $50, $100 and up to and including $200,000 from much older boys who once stamped approval and shouted Handsome Jimmy, Handsome Billy, Handsome Horsey, Handsome Bobby, and Handsome Pete Doyle!
The young men attending Leo make us proud. Our best athletes also happen to be top students and chess masters. Running Back Keith Harris is an IHSA recognized Scholar/Athlete and owns a fearsome record as a Leo Varisty Chessman. Jeremy a sophomore who played football as a freshman managed the Lions this year and is # 2 in his class.
The biggest disciplinary headache confronting teachers is keeping shirts tucked. The halls, where Jelani Clay, Eder Cruz, Moose Gilmartin, Andy McKenna, Tommy Hopkins, Dr. Stafford Hood, Dean at University of Illinois, General George Muellner of Boeing, Illinois Chief Justice Emeritus Tom Fitzgerald, Bishop John Gorman and Frank Considine '39, who modernized Eygpt's economy in the 1970's avoided the eyes of Brothers Rooster McCarthy, Mr. Foster and especially Brother Sloan, are as quiet as they were decades ago, when class is in session.
Visitors to Leo High School are hooked by the spirit of thanks and cooperation that scents our halls, though the second floor bathroom does otherwise, due to its aged plumbing.
One of the most beautiful young women I know, Tamara Holder, an attorney, Fox Television Legal Analyst and journalist visited Leo several times and then called me, " Hickey, I want in! Let me help on your Advisory Board." Done. Tamara works with Bill Holland, Bobby Sheehy, Jack Fitzgerald, Mike Holmes, Kenny Mason, Mike Joyce, Rich Finn, and John Linehan. Tamara is eye-poppingly gorgeous. The Leo Board members are . . .Handsome. Together they advise Dan McGrath and Principal Phil Mesina on how best to serve the Handsome Lions chowing down in turkey, stuffing, greens, yams and cobbler at yesterday's lunch. Today, we will have a Thanksgiving Mass and celebrate the Handsome Jesus Christ for all the blessing and care that He provides this great school and the Handsome young men it serves.
Paul Kelly noted that he looks at the man in the mirror each morning, no longer the tightly fleshed jaws of a teenager perhaps, and announces " Okay!. . . Handsome!"
Leo High School added a wonderful young woman to its Advisory Board last school year - Attorney Tamara Holder, a Fox Television Legal Analyst, journalist and activist.
Prior to her arrival, the Leo Advisory Board consisted of African American and Irish American middle aged males - think of a collection of Cedric the Entertainer/John C. Reilly stand-ins.
Ms. Holder has worked for Operation Push and specializes in expungement/criminal law. More importantly Tamara Holder invests the few hours of her free time making sure that the young guys here on 79th Street get a great education.
Click my post title for the Washington Times's celebration of beautiful women with political impact.
Hottest, is just so . . .what's the word . . . rhymes with dip-stick. It'll come to me. Click my post title for the full story.
Tamara Holder is a beautiful woman and would be so even if she looked like Mike Holmes, Mike Joyce, Rich Finn, Bob Sheehy, Ken Mason, Curtis Cooper, John Linehan, Bill Holland, much less Jack Fitzgerald- beauty is in what you do for others -Facta Non Verba!
Dad always said that I couldn't find my butt with both hands. I can. Allow me to add this imperative -“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you." - Pope Francis to celebrate Pro-life Mass, Vatican
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War
Leo works 24/7 to widen the well and dig in new locations.
.jpg)
