Here's Who Banned Naperville High School from Expressing Free Exercise of Religion

No Asians, Pacific Islanders, Arab Americans, much less African Americans?  Gee whiz, Progressives sure play in their own sand box and then make other people miserable.


The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a complaint with Naperville Central High School after pictures surfaced of the team praying before a Nov. 14 game against Waubonsie Valley High School. ABC 7 Chicago

 “We are so pleased that these outstanding thinkers and freethinkers have agreed to publicly lend their endorsement to the Foundation, and its two purposes of promoting freethought and the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” said Dan Barker, Foundation co-president.

• Jerry Coyne, Ph.D., professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, is author of the popular book 'Why Evolution is True' and the blog of the same name.
• Richard Dawkins, probably the world’s most famous contemporary atheist and a distinguished evolutionary biologist, is Oxford professor emeritus. In his blockbuster book, The God Delusion, Dawkins writes: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”
• Daniel C. Dennett is Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts, and author of the bestselling book about religion, Breaking the Spell. In a newspaper article about his nonbelief, Dennett once wrote: “I’ve come to realize it’s time to sound the alarm.”
• Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments For the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction and a research associate in Harvard’s psychology department, is FFRF Freethought Heroine of 2011. Goldstein is a 1996 MacArthur Fellow (the “genius” award). She has taught at Barnard and in the Columbia MFA writing program and the Rutgers philosophy department. She’s been a visiting scholar at Brandeis and at Trinity College in Hartford.
• Ernie Harburg, a retired research scientist, is president of Yip Harburg Foundation and co-author of Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz? Ernie has dedicated his retirement to furthering the lyrics, music, memory and progressive views of his freethinking father, the lyricist Yip Harburg, author of classic songs such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and of Rhymes for the Irreverent, recently republished by FFRF.
• Jennifer Michael Hecht, poet, historian and author of the acclaimed Doubt: A History and The End of the Soul, told the FFRF 2009 convention audience: “If there is no god — and there isn't — then we [humans] made up morality. And I'm very impressed.”
• Susan Jacoby, bestselling author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, and program director of the Center for Inquiry-New York City, told FFRF convention-goers in 2004: "[President] Kennedy had to speak about his religion because he was suspected of insufficient dedication to the Constitution's separation of church and state. Today's candidates are suspect if they display too much dedication to secular government."
• Robin Morgan, feminist pioneer, global activist, author of the groundbreaking "Sisterhood is Powerful" and more than 20 books, was formerly Ms. Magazine editor and consulting editor. She is the co-founder of the Feminist Women's Health Network and Women's Media Center and currently hosts "Women's Media Center Live" the radio "talk-show with a brain."
• Mike Newdow is working pro bono to challenge such violations as the addition of “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. He told the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments: “I am an atheist. I don't believe in God. And every school morning my child is asked to stand up, face that flag, put her hand over her heart, and say that her father is wrong.”
• Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard, is author of The Blank Slate: “I never outgrew my conversion to atheist at 13.”
• Katha Pollitt, “Subject to Debate” columnist for The Nation, author and poet, has spoken out regularly and energetically as a freethinker, in such columns as “Freedom From Religion, Sí!”
• Ron Reagan, media commentator, describes himself in a radio ad he taped for FFRF as: “Unabashed atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”
• Robert Sapolsky, a neurologist, Stanford professor and bestselling author, once suggested FFRF put up a sign at its conventions: “Welcome, hellbound atheists.”
• Edward Sorel, satiric cartoonist and irreverent illustrator who is a regular contributor to The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and whose caricatures have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, has been a Foundation member since the 1980s.
• Julia Sweeney, comedian and actress, is writer/performer of the play, “Letting Go of God”: “How dare the religious use the term 'born again.' That truly describes freethinkers who've thrown off the shackles of religion so much better!”

I taught The Crucible for decades to high school students.  I taught It Sinclair Lewis' It Can' Happen Here for years.  I taught Milton's Paradise Lost; The Dream of the Rood; Dante's Inferno and the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., as well as Voltaire, Byron, Shelly, Keats and Walt Whitman.

These well-educated elites of Freedom From Religion Foundation would find that troubling.  

Based upon a photo of  high school football players 'grabbing a knee' around their coach, Freedom from Religion Foundation assumed that the players were being puritanized by a public school employee in the secular heresy of prayer.

Naturally, the Foundation filed suit and the Naperville School Leadership tucked tail -"Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Supt. Dan Bridges said he instructed coaches of all sports in the district not to take part in prayers."

The players and their parents had none of it - 

"We, as a football team and a family, give Coach Stine our full support. He is the best coach in the state and cares about each and every one of us more than any other coach cares about his players. We are proud that he is willing to stand up for his faith and for the example he sets for us. He is a role model for every one of us in a world where true male role models are becoming few and far between. The players will continue this tradition of praying before our games and would like to extend an invitation to all members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation to come out next fall and watch us pray and play the game we love. Go Redhawks."

Go, Redhawks!

Freethought????  Except when thinking about God and something other than nonsense.

Why Do ISIS Terrorists Hate Us? Watch Windy City Live, The Chew and or Anthing Produced by The New Disney!

This week I have spent a great deal of time in doctors offices, Emergency Rooms and pharmacies. Those visits require patience for patients and their drivers.  Patience is a time tempered virtue. Ergo, my patience was tested . . .sorely tested.

My patience was not tested by the constraints of medical priorities, nor the unhappy people afflicted with physical burdens, pain and uncertainty.  It was tested by the universal application of ABC/DISNEY channels pumped out of the cables and flat screens in offices of urologists, internal medicos, ERs, pharmacies and even a bakery.

I have watched more Windy City Live, and The Chew,  than human being can tolerate.

The shows are

• Loud -even with the sound off
• Lack any and All Dignity
• Lack Content but Themes aplenty
• Peopled by persons the CTA Redline would ban
• Insulting Universal with More Applause Barrages by Hooting Cretins (Hell bent on getting free stuff) than  offered to Joe Stalin, when he was purging like a Vogue model
• Vile and Make one feel the need to shower for several hours

The US Army psych-ops units could have gotten Noriega to become a Trappist.

e.g. - <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gw9x9r6rAsk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My deepest concern is the fact that these shows are actually watched by people who pick up a handy remote and adjust their settings to ABC 7 in Chicago and or its many national affiliates with the threat of torture.

If want to know why many people voted for Barack Obama (twice), love and admire Donald Trump, consider the greatest intellectual jurist in American history to be a racist, or ISIS just happened, watch ABC daytime programming.

Hit the links - if you dare.

Brutal.

The Rhetorical Masters - ER Nurses and EMTs at Palos Community Hospital

I have spent alot of time in Hospitals.  I am, for all of my follies, sins and an active career despoiler of my own personal Temple of Christ, as healthy as a horse.

The last few weeks have placed me in the position of driver to-and-from ERs, waiting rooms, Doctors Offices, Walgreens Pharmacies and non-medical affiliated places of business.

We all do what we can for our family and friends who have medical issues.

Yesterday, again, a long day at the Emergency Rooms of Palos Community Hospital was required of me.

Palos Community Hospital is a busy place, but it is no Stroger, or Advocate Christ Trauma Center. Nonetheless, I was impressed by women and men who treat us all - eventually.

I was impressed not so much by the medical skills, but by their mastery of language.

I arrived at the ER a little before 7AM and just short of the ambulance arrival.

The place was immaculate and empty.  Within  a score of minutes Palos Community ER filled up. My ears caught the activity beyond the pulled curtains

• An attempted suicide
• A little girl who could not feel her toes following an early morning dance lesson
• More than a few elderly women who fell in their homes
• More than a few work related accidents

At 10 AM, I was asked to run some errands.  Outside of the drawn curtains blue gowned nurses and uniformed EMTs pushed gurneys and carts of human wounded into the halls and giving the worried families comforting, but carefully worded assurances.

When I returned an hour later the gurneys waiting for treatment stations multiplied and the staff lost not a step, nor a scintilla of sweetness. 

That I found impressive.

I am a blabby flannel mouth.   These skilled medics were much more verbally and rhetorically skilled than this word larded soul could ever hope to be, because they are not only constrained by the physical afflictions and some cases hemorrhaging wounds before their compassionate eyes and in their proficient fingers, but also the jungle of jargon attached by lawyers to every document they initial and sign, or utter in public.

God Bless them!

Me and Leon at the Criminal Courts on 26th & California on Cold and Sunny Chicago Day

Jury Duty - Wednesday December 9th 2015.  No getting around it.  I was told my aunt's funeral yesterday was no excuse from this civic responsibility.  Later, I learned that my cousin's son had been told the very same thing by the non-robot who answered the phones.  Cousin Mike's boy was in the jurors assembly area with your humble correspondent.

Parking at the Leighton Branch of the Cook County Criminal Courts is a pre-ordained ticket bonanza for our revenue thirsty City and County.  Parking has all but disappeared in Chicago thanks to the Democrats of Cook County and City of Chicago over the last twenty years.  The big parking garage just east of the California Boulevard parkways is an expensive crap shoot and an absolute nightmare when court is dismissed.

Hours earlier, I did a few e-mail services at Leo High School and then headed down up Western Avenue to my strategically planned parking spot in the Heart of Italy neighborhood located just east of Cook County Jail and the Criminal Courts Leighton Branch on California.

I turned east of Western Ave. on Blue Island and turned at Oakley.  I know this neighborhood as it is one of my absolute favorite dining locales in this diminishing city.  There is island of hope for frustrated motorists seeking a parking spot here.  There are no Green Parking Boxes and there is always a limited number of spots.  Go and seek them out.

I parked, after scouting for any signs of City Ordinance Violations indicators and found it trouble free.

I walked east on 25th street, past the South Side Outlaws Club and several massive auto repair mega-plants and scores of kids heading to school from Lawndale Gardens.



I crossed California Boulevard and walked south to the courts.  It was 7:30 AM and my summons told me to report NO LATER than 9AM.

Outside of the newish Leighton Building  a young Black man in a Afro-Tricolor knit hat and shivering inside a very thin leather jacket was leaning on one of thick concrete blocks intended to stop terrorists from driving a car bomb into the facility grabbing a smoke.

I decided to grab one too.

" Jury duty,?' I asked with my customary south side Irish bonhomie.

" No, sir, a beef," answered the young gent whom Alderman Leslie Hairston and Mayor Rahm Emanuel would order racist and or race -traitor cops to brace if they got within twenty feet of him.

I have some street sense developed via empirical data stored over many years of not really giving a $hit about appearances.  Some of the creepiest people I have encountered sport HartMarx suits, or Lake Forest doyen get-ups. The absolute creepiest are Sixty-Somethings costumed in Retro-hippie Bolivarista get-ups and are usually academics, or CPAs from Evanston.

This young gent had the looks of a working man, a family man and, like me, a guy who screwed up.

"What's the charge? "

" DUI - I can't take this one.  I live in Merrillville with my wife and two kids.  I work construction and need my car.'

" Where'd you get tagged?"

" 79th Street just west of Halsted."

Right in the Pat Hickey conversational (monologue) wheelhouse.

" I work at Leo High School."

" I know it says so on your coat."

Unabashed, " What happened?"

The young man told that his wife had gone to Chicago with a couple of friends from high school and had, as many a young lady in my circle of life, taken one too many Mojitas.  The two kids were staying with an Aunt and my nicotine gulping fellow had stopped at the Alaska Pipeline for a  few jars with the lads.

Perfect storm.  He got call from his bride to come and get her at a pub on Vincennes not far from Leo High School - he had a couple of beers in him and drove from Schereville to the Skyway and eventually west on 79th Street.  He noticed a CPD patrol car behind him and the fact that he was not wearing a seat belt.  He pulled on the always, it seems, tangled safety harness and swerved a bit.  Blue Lights.

We walked into the Leighton Building and were told to leave until 8:30 AM. I asked the young man his name.  " Leon _____."

I took Leon for coffee - he declined breakfast on me.  We walked west on 26th Street, in what seemed 'forever,' along the walls of Cook County Jail and arrived in the warmth of Milagro!

We had a great jaw.  I learned that Leon's family had once been a political juice load of DNA, until Daley II turned his back on Leon's grandmother.  He had grown up in Englewood, attended Amos Alonzo Stagg elementary ( former site of Leo High School's legendary Shewbridge Field) and CVS High School.  As many a young man will do he got into a juvenile beef and was sent to the State of Illinois Boot Camp in Rantoul and learned a better path.  Since then he had no further scrapes with the law, worked in construction in Belize, the Bahamas and now in Northwest Indiana.

We walked back to Leighton and went inside, I asked if Judge Thomas Murphy was working here in the hope that maybe, Leon would get a nonpolitical black robe for his beef.  No luck, Murph is in Bridgeview Division.

We  queued up in the males only line.  Leon was told he had to lock-up his cellp-phone.  We were parting, " I send up a flock of Memorares at 9 AM."

" What's that?"

" The absolute best prayer, I know, Leon. God Be with!"

" You too.  Thanks,"

No, Leon. Thank you. I went to the third floor, was selected for Panel 6, saw my cousin Mike's kid and talked about Aunt Aurelia's wake at Sheehy's on 79th Street and said a good number of prayers for Leon.

Jury duty was a breeze.

Inquiry - Conclude and Gather The Facts in Favor of An American Gestapo

The Laquan McDonald Shooting is a convenient step to a much larger goal - the establishment of Federal Police everywhere in America.

Black Lives Matter only until this goal is achieved.

• Henry Louis Gates
• Ferguson, MO
• Baltimore,
• Cincinnati
• Chicago

All steps up the National Police ladder of inquiry.


Marches and Scream Fests on Race will continue until this goal is achieved - an American Gestapo.

Cops, no matter how many cameras affixed with Dolby sound included, will still be cops, until the goal of a National Supreme Policing Force is achieved.

While Rahm Emanuel attempted to sweep the McDonald shooting under any rug and damn the costs, because he was facing re-election, Jamie Kalevn found a friendly judge who offered up Criminal Complaints ( CRs) against any and all members of the Chicago Police Department.

CRs are 'beefs' - Police are required to interface with criminals and people who do not follow the rules most people take as a matter of course in daily life.  Such individuals as the former return the obligatory Q & A by filing a 'police complaint.'

Jamie Kalven, a millionaire real estate mogul, investor and Marxist from Chicago's Hyde Park is celebrated Progressive icon with decades of community activism to his record.  He now heads the Invisible Institute.

Young independent journalist Brandon Smith dovetailed to Kalven successful jude shopping, as would Chicago's utility self-promoting news harridan Carol Marin, and notes " But I'm not taking no for an answer—particularly in light of Kalven v. Chicago, an Illinois Appellate Court decision last March that established information about police misconduct is public, except in limited circumstances that don't apply in the case of the McDonald shooting video.

That case was brought by Chicago civil rights journalist Jamie Kalven. After he prevailed, he and his lawyers helped the city craft a more thorough transparency policy in accordance with the court's decision. Apparently the Chicago Police Department believes the Kalven ruling doesn't apply in the case of the shooting of Laquan McDonald.  I'd like to hear what the courts think."

Brandon, you would not like to hear what I think, because I believe that Truth is shared, not co-opted.

I believe that the shooter of Laquan McDonald is an idiotic monster, from what I witnessed on the video who betrayed all of his law enforcement sister and brothers. I do not believe, nor think as you say, that he is in any way a symptom of any problem with policing - local, state or federal.

He belongs to some political creature in Chicago, or Cook County, or the State of Illinois.  Someone in the food chain is what Chicagoan's call 'his Chinaman.'  He's got sponsor somewhere.

He is a wrong guy.

He should not be, be you will help make him be a rung on the ladder to an Amnerican Gestapo.

You have a great deal of fellows in satisfying, as John Dewey used the term, path to Inquiry. God help us.

A national police force is a huge topic on all of cable news outlets and in the WIFI friendly coffeeshops of America.  An American Gestapo.

Americans want that.  Americans need that.  You see, inquiry has determined things so long ago . . .long before Burge, long before Laquan McDonald and Americans by and large accept every dust ball of incident, word, thought and nod that rolls out in news print, pours from the maw of Carol Marin, or gets ruled accommodating judges.

Listen.  Brandon Smith



Brandon Smith went to a notoriously ant-cop law firm - Loevy and Loevy which has its roots in the Marxist American labor movement of the last century.  Jon Loevy is the son of Arthur Loevy who attempted to move 'police labor' to the far left during the later part of the 20th Century.  His son honed his sights on 'systemic police racism and brutality' and made millions from gutless local and State settlements, as well as active participation in the now discredited, but still much loved Wrongful Conviction Industry.


Police misconduct is no longer policed by the police, but by task forces, panels and left-friendly columnists.

Chicago is a thug comfort zone.  Police are universally targeted and vilified.

Inquiry - drawing a conclusion and making anything fit that conclusion is American thought.

The Frumious Bandersnatch Lands in Paris

A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,
 For he knew it was useless to fly.
He offered large discount—he offered a check
 (Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:
But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck
And grabbed at the Banker again.
Without rest or pause—while those frumious jaws
Went savagely snapping around—

Last night our Lewis Carroll world ended for scores of young people in Paris.  Islamist terrorists slaughtered Parisians, only hours after devasting the Paris of Middle East, Beirut.

In a district of Paris not unlike Chicago's Wicker Park, or Lakeview, outdoor cafes and concert venues were targeted by the people of blood who worship the Black Flag.

I know many Muslims and they worship God - the same God to whom I ask forgiveness for my selfishness, thoughtlessness and weakness.

The fact of the matter the people of blood are not Lutherans, Catholics, Coptics, Hussites, or Amish people and sure as hell are not Jews.

The people of blood are Islamists. Muslims in the same manner that Himmler was a baptized Catholic. They are Marxist Liberation Theology savages aided, abtted, encouraged and defended by Western intellectuals.

The blood in Paris has not yet dried and my own is boiling on a slow simmer waiting for our Lewis Carroll intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Barack Obama to parse out this latest  Hunting of the Snark episode.

I taught Lewis Carroll to my high school students, when it was called 'nonsense verse.'

Well, our academic frauds in what used to be called American universities in what used to be called Western Civilization and tony magazines ( Atlantic, New Republic, The Nation & etc.) that bowdlerize the 'thoughts' of popular Hegelian totalitarian semiotics mouthed by tweedy creeps like Chomsky, have perfected an intellectual climate in the world that is most welcoming to the people of blood.

Here in Chicago , the same stripe of intellectuals, spawned out of Neo- Hegelian nests like University of Chicago and Northwestern University,  dominate Cook County politics, the media and what is laughingly called 'The Conversation.'  They created Chicago's Thug Comfort Zones, parsed away as 'gun violence' and now called ChiRaq.  Memes are screamed and accepted as truth and logic - systemic racist police torture and wrongful du jour and de jure and that is reason nine year olds are assassinated and three year olds slaughtered in Chicago - because the people of blood are allowed, encouraged and defended to do so.

Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Australia and now Canada are all led by Chief Executives drawn directly from the verses of Lewis Carroll.

Nine idiots (Western Powers) behind leadership of The Bellman went hunting for the "Snark."  The Snark was known by so many names and always misidentified by the hunters.

Barack Obama reminds me most of the Banker, who tries to buy off the terrorizing monsters and goes totally out of his mind. John Kerry? The Bellman.

God help  us.

Leo Veterans Observances 2015 Photos

Here are some pictures that I took of yesterday's Leo High School Veterans Observances -

 Vietnam Veterans of the Class of 1965 Rich Doyle and Tom Connors chat with Leo Hall of Fame Inductees of 2015 - The Marines of Chicago's Own 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines.

 Decorated combat veterans of Tinley Park VFW Post

 Mr. Harold Green keeps Leo High School a place to be proud of and is himself a Vietnam Vet.

Don Hogan who fired the big guns of the Battleship New Jersey in WWII is welcomed back to Leo High School by the Class of 2015.

The courtyard was thick with heroes.

Jim Wilkins '44 and his beautiful family were treated with great respect and dignity by ABC 7's Ravi Baichwal.  

Leo High School Veterans Observance 2015 - God Bless All Who Serve!

" Busted!" Jim Wilkins '44 showed Darius Branch '16 the 1943 Tribune article showing him ditching classes at Leo to join the Navy in WWII

This year Leo High School corrected a wrong.

17 year old Jim Wilkins ( Leo '44) ditched school during his Junior year at Leo High School ( an act of bravery in itself, given the watchful eyes of the Irish Christian Brothers at that time) and enlisted in the United States Navy.

Jim Wilins is the blond gent in the 1943 Tribune article ( lower Left and Large!) 

From 1943 until the end of WW II, Jim Wilkins served on many combat patrols aboard submarines.

Jim returned from the war and was denied his diploma . . .he did not have enough academic credits.

Then, in a few years, Wilkins went back into the service to fight in the Korean War.

He still did not have enough academic credits to merit a diploma.

Seventy one years later, Leo Alumni President Emeritus Rich Furlong and his heroic brother Jim Furlong who saved his company commander, his squad and his mission by leaping in front of a North Vietnamese hand grenade, sacrificing his left leg in that bloody bargain, heard that Jim Wilkins had been wronged by educators.

The best people who work in schools, really use that term 'educator,' because they are teachers.

There is a huge difference. In my forty years plus of teaching in Catholic high schools, 'educators' are the persons who can not discipline a class, lead kids to learn, or merit the respect of people who do; they become educators.

Teachers teach no matter what their 'academic' job description tags them to be and try to make every experience a learning one.

Yesterday, Leo High School taught Chicago a great lesson.  Credentials mean little.  Capacity means everything.  James Wilkins has capacity a plenty.

Mr. Wilkins and Mr. Jack Schaller ( Leo '43) an Army Purple Heart veteran of New Guinea and the Philippines laid the wreathes at the Leo War Memorial to taps played by Mr. Jim Gould of Bugles Across America.

More than three hundred people including Jim Wilkins family,  four serving combat veterans of Chicago's Own 2/24 Marines, Tinley Park VFW members, eleven combat decorated veterans of Vietnam from the Leo High School Class of 1965, scores of Leo High School veterans of WWII, Korea, Lebanon 1959, Berlin Occupation, Cuban Missile Crisis, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Grenada, Lebanon 1980's, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan  and the entire student body of Leo High School witnessed Jim Watkins accept his diploma.

I would like to thank the Chicago Tribune Suburban Branch, ABC 7 Chicago's Ravi  Biachwal, 2/24 Marines, Bugles Across America, Windy City Veterans, Tinley Park VFW Post, Steuber Florists, Pat Roberto of Calabria Imports, Miss Mary T. Burke, Bill Figel '73, the Leo Alumni Association and the Officers of Chicago Police District

Chicago's Ed Kelly: Kids Come First and Damn Policy to Hell!

“Oh, Mr. Mayor, I’m not really interested in politics, I want to run sports, coaching and that.” - Ed Kelly to Mayor Richard J. Daley

I was blessed to know the difference between what the Irish call Shite and the once popular protective wax application for shoes.   What actually takes place is truth.  What some people say intended policy happens to be is shite. When a man teaches little boys and girls about the physics involved in shooting a basketball through a hoop, or learning to keep one's protective 'left up' in a schoolyard scrap, or how to successfully fill out a job application for summer employment is Shinola - a no longer used commodity in public education, government and discourse.

Government was at one time merely a means of protecting an old lady from starving in a cold-water flat, an access to entry level jobs skills, a protector of public parks and sports programs and point of reference about one's personal character for soul less human resource bureaucrats.

Then came Shakman, the DNC, and the endless parade of talentless takers, jumping from government appointment to appointment to that multi-pension Promised Land.  Chicago today.

I have been blessed to know the difference, between a public servant and a power grabbing grifter.

There are a few public servants still walking around, but they have traded Addidas running shoes for  Shinola applicated Johnson and Murphys.

In our times, a  public servant can no longer be like Ed Kelly.

This summer Mr. Edmund L. Kelly turned 91 years old.

Edmund L. Kelly was born and raised on Chicago's north side in a neighborhood now known as "Cabrini Green."  From an early age, Ed excelled in sports spending most of his free time in neighborhood parks-a foreshadowing of his future when he would one day lead the Chicago Park District.
Ed graduated from St. Philip's High School in 1942.  While attending St. Philip's, his basketball talent earned him positions on the All-Catholic, All-City and All-Star Basketball teams.  Ed attended DePaul University and the University of Iowa, majoring in Physical Education.
In 1943, Ed enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.  Serving as an aerial gunner with a divebomber squadron, he saw action in the South Pacific and served in China from 1945-1946.  During his Marine career, Ed was elected to the All-Service Basketball Team and won the welterweight boxing championship.  He later played professional basketball with the Oshkosh All Stars in the National Basketball Association. The Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame

Ed Kelly ' ran the Parks' when I was a kid.  O'Halleran Park, Dawes Park, Foster Park, Hamilton Park Ogden Park, Sherman Park . . .you name a Chicago Park had a program staffed by college athletes, like Mount Carmel Hero of my youth  Bill Trapp . Ed Kelly staffed Chicago's Parks with solid people of great character who taught us to throw a spiral football, hit a three point shot, jab, hook and duck when necessary.  Ed Kelly protected kids, because he kept on eye on who would be teaching kids sport techniques, but more importantly character.

Ed Kelly did not use policy as a mandate - policy is for the pusillanimous.

Ed Kelly is a man.

Then came the idiotic and evil Shakman decision which took 'character' out of politics.

Name an elected politician who does not hide behind 'That smooth'd faced Gentleman, tickling' policy to paraphrase Shakepeare's greatest moral character The Bastard from King John. 

On November 14th, Edmund L. Kelly will be inducted into the Chicago Boxing Hall of Fame for his work with kids.

Ed Kelly could very well stand on the Shakspeare Stage at  Navy Pier and pronounce

Mad world! mad Mayors ! mad composition!
 . . .
With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,
That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,
That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,
Who, having no external thing to lose
But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that,
That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling ( Policy for Commodity) ,
 POLICY , the bias of the world,
The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this  POLICY,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
And this same bias, this POLICY,
This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
 . . .
And why rail I on this POLICY?
But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:
Not that I have the power to clutch my hand,
When his fair angels would salute my palm;
But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail
And say there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be
To say there is no vice but beggary.
Since kings break faith upon POLICY,
Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee. ( changes and emphases my own with profound apologies to the Bard)

Ragoût de boeuf à la manière d' Epstein- Not Much More to Do: Cook Using Readings from Joe Epstein as a Timer

No Leo Football; bugger all on TV; it's cold; I'm Tap City, until pay day. I took out my 1947 Wagner Ware dutch oven and gave it s good washing and let dry overnight and thought of making a weekends worth of good eatin' ragout - chili, goulash, or maybe stew.  Yeah, stew.

Not just stew, but Ragoût de boeuf à la manière d' Epstein - Joseph Epstein.  Last winter, I made this concoction and used Joe Epstein as my timer. No kidding.

Ergo, I defrosted two pounds of County Fair stew meat and roasted six red potatoes and put the spud back in the icebox overnight.  I cut stew quality onions, carrots, celery and a small stalk of fennel and did the same.

So I'm making stew.

I use Tony Cachere's Creole Seasoning instead of standard season salt.

I will brown the beef once I shake the bovine cubes in black peppered flour - one pound at a times in cooking oil and once browned up nicely take the meat out with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Then I add the five cups of vegetables the 1947 Wagner Ware dutch oven gave scald the hell out of them.

After a sound scalding, or roots, stalks and bulbs, I return the browned beef and two tablespoons of Tony Cachere and mix well with a wooden spoon.  After that I pour cold tap water three cups and 1 1/2 cup of beef stock and bring to a rolling boil uncovered.

I reduce the flame in the stove top to simmer and cover and will read from Joseph Epstein's Essay's in Biography - George Washington, Henry Adams. ( forty minutes) 

That should be about time to give the wooden spoon another workout and make sure I am getting the 'good stuff' scraped off the bottom.

Return to Essay's in Biography - George Santayana and Adlai Stevenson.( forty minutes)  

At this point in my process I take the cut and roasted potatoes chilling in the icebox and add them to the mixture.

More wrist work with the wooden spoon.

Read the rather longish essay on Henry Luce ( twenty to twenty five minutes) and then taste what I have wrought.  Add appropriate seasonings and water.

Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Put the stew in a tupperware container and place it in the ice box for Saturday's enjoyment with biscuits that I pop out of the cardboard can, because I am one lousy baker. 

Moms, Bundle Up Those Little Guys

Today is one windy and cold twenty four!  Even my old chill friendly pelt feel the sting of winter's slap on this October 29th of the year of Our Lord 2015. At Leo High School, Sangamon Street seems to act as a concrete HVAC -winds blow particularly strong south to north and getting the damn door to open with my key (attached to my identity lanyard and a stout pound or so duplicate and out-of-date keys to whatever) was daunting task.

I almost, almost mind you,  turned on the boilers at 4:30AM.  Nah, these brawny stalwarts can take it and it will be warmer by class time.

Out in the neighborhoods, Moms, or widowed Dads like your humble correspondent. should start boiling the water for oatmeal and hitting the cedar chest of winter togs.

One of my favorite parenting obligations was getting the bairns bundled wrapped and hatted to meet the challenges of Chicago's Hawk.




" You're gonna be warm . . .too bad about you. Now, get!"

Leo High School's 20th Veterans Observance Friday, November 6th 2015

 

In 1995, Leo High School Principal and later President Robert W. Foster began the annual recognition of all who serve our country, especially those members of our Armed Services.

Since then, on the Friday immediately before our National Veterans Day ( November 11th) the entire Leo High School convenes in the courtyard of the school on 79th Street at the marble maker engraved with the names of Leo Men who died defending America.

This event allows no speeches by politicians.  It is a simple and dignified ceremony honoring the people who sacrificed their youth, blood, limbs and lives protecting all of us.

Doing the Color Honors will be the team from Chicago's Own and Leo Hall of Fame 2014 Honorees the Second Battalion, Twenty-Fourth Marines and Taps will be performed by members of Bugles Across America.

• Steuber Florist  provides the wreathes for honors

• Calabria Imports provides post-ceremony refreshments

• Chicago Police Sixth District provides event coverage and security

This year, Leo High School will present a diploma to a combat veteran of World War II and Korea who was denied that piece of paper, because he entered the service in his junior year.

Mr. Jim Wilkins of Tinley Park, IL will get what has for far too long been denied him.

Joining Mr. Wilkins in laying wreathes at the Leo War Memorial will be Mr., Jack Schaller a Purple Heart Veteran of World War II combat in the Philippines and a Leo High School Hall of Fame man.

This event welcomes the public.

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600 ex. 208
When – November 6th 2015 at 11AM
Where – The Courtyard of Leo High School 7901 South Sangamon Street Chicago 60620
What - Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association welcomes all veteran to the Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard. , Leo High School Principal Phil Mesina (USAF ret.) r & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.)
Who - Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II , Korea , and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 150 Leo students in honoring America ’s war fallen. 

 

Leo High School Speakers at War Memorial 11 A.M.
1.  Leo Principal Mesina and Vice Principal Wilson - Call to Order
2. Prayer by Alumni President Larry Lynch and Introduction to the ceremony by Alumni President Emeritus Richard Furlong and will read the biography of Mr. James Wilkins Leo Class of 1944 who was denied his diploma because he entered the service.
3. Leo High School  President Dan McGrath will introduce Mr. Jim Wilkins and present him with his long-overdue diploma and Mr. Jack Schaller ’43 Purple Heart, Leo Hall of Famer.
4. Color and Honor of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines – Posting of the Colors -Chicago’s own & Wreathe Laying by Leo Veterans & Purple Heart Veterans.
5. Our National Anthem by Leo Choir
7. Taps by Bugles Across America and Dismissal & Refreshments in Leo Cafeteria

 

My Silent Screams at Woody Allen Movies

Woody Allen made one great movie "Take the Money and Run" - 1969 - it was and remains brilliant.

I am a heterosexual male; as such, I was forced by social convention to sit through a thick part of the Woody Allen canon.

Remember, this is me talking.

I would rather endure a nice periodontal marathon at the hands of a lesbian with the shakes and breath like Gary, Indiana in the 1960's

The world thinks that Woody Allen is a genius and that Barack Obama is a great President.

Me? Not so much.

Woody Allen's korpo de laboro irritates me, but Not anywhere near as much as the ubiquitous immediate question asked by every woman ( lover, wife, companion, obligatoy 'take her out, Hickey') who dragged me silently screaming to Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, & etc. ad finitum, " That was brilliant! Don't You Think?"

I am as yellow as a duck's foot and my reply was usually a nod, or an Uh-Huh.

The nebbish keeps making them movies, but I'll have no more!

I will scream, "No" in thunder!  I am almost Sixty Four Years of Age for Chrissakes!

I must change, or risk bursting my aged tripes in frustrated anger!  Not to mention the abject @#$%ing boredom. 

President Obama Brings it Home to Insult Cops and Do the Work of Gamaliel

President Obama detests cops almost as much he does the military.  It is part of his political and maybe even helix-ed to his physical DNA.

He spent his post college days here in Chicago insinuating himself into the political melange of  The Windy City's Progressive-wing of the Devolving Democratic Party that had already been moving from meat and potatoes goulash to its current Vegan Curry.  The hearty stew of sensible legislation and ordinances that kept nickels in pockets and compounded interest daily for the middle class that had once whetted the appetites of working women and men became a global directed spice rack of tax-funded exotic policy mandates that to this day makes life miserable for all people, as well as pits neighbor against neighbor.   Obama honed his spice knives with the Gamaliel Foundation which schooled him on methods to do just that -

 Gamaliel of Metro Chicago (GMC) is regional member of the Gamaliel Network. GMC’s mission is to develop new community leaders through building networks of “core teams” and alliances with other community groups to build an organization capable of responding to issues of education funding reform, economic development, civil rights of immigrants, universal healthcare, older adult economic and social well being, and workforce development. The Gamaliel Network is made up of affiliates in 18 states, South Africa and Great Britain. President Barack Obama was a community organizer with Gamaliel in the 1980’s.

This is a very secularized quasi-religious ( they take money from Catholics) group of radicals who have perched themselves above the people they claim to 'want to help' and attract some of daffiest do-gooder-wannabe's it has been my personal and professional waste-of-time bed-of-nails  in my three score and change time on the terra.  This group counts on goofs and creeps. Goofs are individuals with a limited experience in getting along with people, a very stunted sense of literary discernment, but a great capacity for telling people how morally repugnant they happen to be, if they disagree with Gamaliel's dictum of what exactly God's Commonwealth happens to be.  Creeps are career takers.

Gameliel attracts goofs to do the nuts and bolts stuff and creeps to take credit for the work the goofs have done.  Barack H. Obama took an incredible amount of credit. Via Gamaliel, young Barack Obama learned the pathways tp God's (or something omnipotent - government) Commonwealth.

The four pathway's to God's Commonwealth

• Create Structural Racial Equality. ( Racial Quotas) 
• Build Peoples Control of Government ( No Fault Voter Registration)
• Build Community Control of the Economy - (Occupy/Minimum Wage)
• Expand the Public Sphere ( Black Lives Matter)

Cops and the military preserve, protect and defend the races, the government, the economy and the public within the frame work of the United States Constitution which is not a global frame work and it must go.

Today, Barack Obama comes home to Chicago a.k.a Chiraq - a place he more than helped develop.

He will address Police Chiefs - most of whom were nominated, appointed, or selected by local governments. His message to them is to think globally.  Think exactly the way Barack H. Obama, a Gamaliel disciple, thinks.

• Force more gun laws
• Don't arrest approved minorities
• Don't Make Him Tell You Again

More importantly, President Obama will do some fundraising.

The speech is part of Obama's cross-country travel to meet with people working to fix the criminal justice system, from law enforcement officials endeavoring to lower crime and incarceration rates to former prisoners "earning their second chance," the official added.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is scheduled to address the conference earlier in the day.
While in Chicago, Obama is to attend a fundraising dinner being hosted by Robbie Robinson, managing director of BDT & Co., and his wife, D'Rita, founder and CEO of Chatty Guest.
Co-hosts are being asked to contribute $33,400 and guests, $10,000, according to an invitation.
The first $2,500 of each contribution will go to Obama for America — the president's principal campaign committee — for 2012 general election debt retirement. Any contributions above $2,500 go to the Democratic National Committee.

President Obama is a creep and a Gamaliel disciple.  What are we?

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.

This is My Friend Sharon J.and She is Welcome Any Day

Miss Sharon J____ kept me happy while I parked cars for the Stanley Cup visit to Leo High School - Leo's North Lot (09/15/2015)

On the day, the Chicago Black Hawks Organization and our great Defense Man #7 Brent Seabrook brought the Stanley Cup to Leo High School, I was busy outside of school building arranging parking and security for the event with officers of the Sixth District and Leo High School seniors who volunteered.

I ran back forth between the faculty and visitor parking lot on the southwest side of 79th & Sangamon and the big student/parent/visitors lot on the northeast side of the street.

One person who helped keep me centered and happy through the day is a little lady who became my pal seven years ago,  Her name is Miss Sharon J----.

Sharon has had a tough life, but is a remarkably chipper lady.  She walks all over the 17th Ward and lives in a small apartment near 87th and Carpenter.

Sharon graduated from the now closed Visitation Girls Catholic High School in the early 1970's and went to Jackson State University where she became friends with the great Chicago Bear legend Walter Payton. Like Payton Miss Sharon is a Mississippi gal and her chats with me always segue to 'homecoming'  near Columbia with all of her cousins.

Miss Sharon's nephews went to Leo High School and she is always asking me if I came to know so-and-so, or knew what they were up to.

Sadly, Miss Sharon is out of touch with some in her family.  After Jackson State University, life went off the rails for Miss Sharon.  Miss Sharon is neither down, nor out.  Miss Sharon struggles.

Her very sweet and thoughtful heart was never damaged by anything that harmed her otherwise. Some people say heartless things about and to her.  That is all too human. Aldermen, State Senators and even school teachers can thoroughly rotten bastards who would take the last chair, or the parking spot of a disabled person and say some of the warmest and nicest things. Some people never see past the resume, the title or the human tinsel. I like to tear into gifts, be human or boxed.  I get excited about opening new gifts and enjoying old ones.  I love the gift of speech.   I like words.  I like deeds better. Me, I take people as they act toward me and Miss Sharon is and has been my pal.

On the day, of the Stanley Cup Visit, Miss Sharon refused my offer to escort her into the event.  " No, thank you, I don't want upset anyone.  One teacher told me 'Stay away, Crackhead,' one morning, 'the boys don't need to see you hanging around.'  I don't want anyone upset."

Miss Sharon and I stayed out and had some laughs.

I wish I knew who said that to this lady, or anyone.  Miss Sharon is always welcome.