Thank You Big Shoulders and Prof. Hank Perritt's Kent Law Students!

Kent Law Professor Hank Perritt,* a wildly accomplished gentleman, brought a score or more Kent Law Students to help gussy-up the grounds of Leo High School.

The Big Shoulders Fund's Amy Drozda and the venerable Tom Zbierski ( The Polish Lion!) reached out to these fine folks and Leo added a thick coat of black enamel to its parking lot fence and had two class-rooms painted as well while the Leo Student Body cut alley weeds, hauled out trash and gave the athletic weight rooms and locker-rooms a thorough going over.

The young law students  came from all over Chicago and from Kansas, Missouri and California. One young lady boarded the 79th Street Westbound at the end of the day.  There were five beautiful young ladies who had no problem getting right to work and knew the working end of rollers and brushes.  All of the students, Law and Leo, enjoyed themselves - they shot hoops in our iconic gym, hit the speed bag in the boxing room with Leo Man James Davis and learned Leo Lore from President Dan McGrath, who sent two Kent students to check in on me and inquire about my 'night terrors' and screaming, as I slumbered in my cubicle.

The He-Bull ramrod-ing these charitable exertions was Professor Hank Perritt.  The Leo Family thanks its pals from the Big Shoulders Fund and Kent Law School!  Hank can paint a fence.

Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Professor of Law and Director of the Graduate Program in Financial Services Law

Henry H. Perritt, Jr., is a professor of law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He served as Chicago-Kent's dean from 1997 to 2002 and was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Tenth District of Illinois in 2002. Throughout his academic career, Professor Perritt has made it possible for groups of law and engineering students to work together to build a rule of law, promote the free press, assist in economic development, and provide refugee aid through "Project Bosnia," "Operation Kosovo" and "Destination Democracy."

Professor Perritt is the author of more than 75 law review articles and 17 books on international relations and law, technology and law, employment law, and entertainment law, including Digital Communications Law, one of the leading treatises on Internet law; Employee Dismissal Law and Practice, one of the leading treatises on employment-at-will; and two books on Kosovo:Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency, published by the University of Illinois Press, and The Road to Independence for Kosovo: A Chronicle of the Ahtisaari Plan, published by Cambridge University Press.

He is active in the entertainment field, as well, writing several law review articles on the future of the popular music industry and of video entertainment. He also wrote a 50-song musical about Kosovo, You Took Away My Flag, which was performed in Chicago in 2009 and 2010. A screenplay for a movie about the same story and characters has a trailer online and is being shopped to filmmakers. His two new plays, Airline Miles and Giving Ground, are scheduled for performances in Chicago in 2012. His novel, Arian, was published by Amazon.com in 2012. He has two other novels in the works.

He served on President Clinton's Transition Team, working on telecommunications issues, and drafted principles for electronic dissemination of public information, which formed the core of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments adopted by Congress in 1996. During the Ford administration, he served on the White House staff and as deputy under secretary of labor.

Professor Perritt served on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Policy Board of the National Research Council, and on a National Research Council committee on "Global Networks and Local Values." He was a member of the interprofessional team that evaluated the FBI's Carnivore system. He is a member of the bars of Virginia (inactive), Pennsylvania (inactive), the District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois and the United States Supreme Court.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, on the Lifetime Membership Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, and as secretary of the Section on Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. He is vice-president and a member of the board of directors of The Artistic Home theatre company, and is president of Mass. Iota-Tau Association, the alumni corporation for the SAE fraternity chapter at MIT.

Professor Perritt earned his B.S. in engineering from MIT in 1966, a master's degree in management from MIT's Sloan School in 1970, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975*

http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/faculty/full-time-faculty/henry-h-perritt-jr

The Big Shoulders Fund - The Real Deal: Catholic Schools for All

Today, Leo High School will welcome scores of volunteers shepherded by the staff of Chicago's Big Shoulders Fund.  The volunteers are law students from Chicago's Kent School of Law.  The boss shepherd will be Gordon Tech Alumnus and Big Shoulders director Tom Zbierski*.

CPS may very well begin the official school year with Teachers Strike.

Catholic schools, who continue to out perform public schools at every level, have been in session. Leo High School has been at it for the last two weeks.

The Big Shoulders Fund helps inner city families secure a Catholic Education. That education makes success an almost certainty - every graduate of Leo's Class of 2011 is in college.  Not every student wants or should go to college.  Catholic schools prepare young people for good paying careers in the skilled trades.  The skilled trades ( carpenters, electricians, pipe fitters, engineers) want to fill their apprenticeship slots with workers who know the stuff and show up for work.

Today, the volunteers will paint and help the Leo Family spruce up the old place.

The Big Shoulders Fund works 24/7.  Here is a splendid video of its mission and the young people it supports.



Get involved!

*For more than twenty three years, the Big Shoulders Fund has undertaken the responsibility of helping Chicago's inner-city children to achieve their dreams through access to a quality, values-based education.  However, we need your help to make this possible.  There are many ways to make a difference and we hope you will get involved.

• Donate. Make a gift individually, as a family or through your company.

• Participate. Attend our annual Lend a Shoulder Day where friends get a glimpse of what happens at the schools through visits, attending class and networking.

• Mentor. Work directly with students. Mentors are placed whenever possible in the school of their own choosing or, if the mentor is able, where the need is the greatest. If you are interested in learning more about the mentoring opportunities, please contact Tom Zbierski, Director of School Relations at 312-751-8365 / tzbierski@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Build. Join or create a Patron Advisory Board.  The Patrons Program is seeking bright, committed women and men to serve on Patron Advisory Boards.  Our schools are in need of professionals who are interested in contributing a small amount of their time and talent in the areas of marketing, accounting, fundraising, capital improvements, construction and technology. Individuals can be apart of these boards who are working to build a sustainable, vital future for Catholic schools in Chicago. If you are interested in learning more about joining a Patron Advisory Board, please contact John Moran, Director of the Patrons Program at 312-751-3897 / jmoran@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Fundraise. Help plan the annual Big Shoulders Fund Golf Classic which raises essential scholarship funds to enable inner-city children to attend inner-city Catholic schools. We are always seeking new members for the Golf Classic committee. Dedicated volunteers from the civic and business community plan the event and solicit sponsors, auction items, donations and foursomes. For more information, to golf or to join in the committee, please contact Amy Drozda, Associate Director for Events and Publications at 312-751-3850 / adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Join. Become a part of the Auxiliary Board which is designed to engage active and altruistic young professionals (20s through 40s). Members can be part of three committees: Fundraising, Outreach, and Schools.  Through these committees members are able to help plan fundraisers, volunteer with Big Shoulders schools and children, and work to increase the visibility of the Big Shoulders Fund and the Auxiliary Board, and recruit new members.  For more information or to join please contact Amy Drozda, Associate Director for Events and Publications at 312-751-3850 /adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Serve. One-Day Opportunities We know that many people who want to lend a hand are very busy between family and work committments.  We have a variety of one day service opportunities including our events and Give Back Days. Not only are these great ways for you to give back, but they are a perfect way to bring a group together.  We extend the opportunity for service days to alumni groups, sharing parishes, companies and other clubs. The Big Shoulders Fund and the Auxiliary Board host Saturday morning service days every other month.  These events are held from 9am till noon at different schools around the city of Chicago.  If you are interested in joining us please contact Amy Drozda at 312-751-3850 or adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

HuffPo Chicago Launders and Sun Times Chokes on the Cook County Crypt Keeper

When not declaring dead folks anathematizamus, Zeus and Toni Preckwinkle like to get their opera on!

Man, just when you think that Todd Akin is the champion clod in the U.S.of A,  Cook County Board President and Crypt Keeper Toni Preckwinkle raises the bar on stupid.

Huffington Post -the Hollywood Squares of Third Rate opinion - fails to give Chicago meme-gobblers a Taste of Toni. Naturalment.  Greek Golddigger Arianna's stable of nags includes check-kiting felon and hubby to the always hilarious Jan Schalowsky, Bob Creamer.  The local talent is comprised of Windy City Times and SEIU mouthpieces - its missioning rubric should read -Keep it Stupid, Simple! They went dark on Toni's damnation of Old Dutch. There is no mention of Toni Preckwinkle's post-mortem anathema of President Ronald Reagan from yesterday's leadership confab run by Governor Fatuous Ninny-Emeritus Jim Edgar at U. of I. in downstate Illinois.

Laundered.  Memory Hole'd.

Even the Editorial Cheerleaders of the Chicago Sun Times needed to choke back it's previous white-wash of
Toni Preckwinkle's stewardship over the warehouse of stiffs at the County Morgue.  The Sun Times Editorialistas had, only hours before, run the ink-wagon over their columnists scoop-interview with the former County employee who was fitted for the Morgue Mess jacket, by the wife of Zeus and new Medusa President Toni "Crypt Keeper" Preckwinkle. Voila!

Even as we were writing the editorial to the left on Tuesday in praise of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle for her enlightened approach to juvenile justice, she was stepping in it Downstate.
Participating in a panel discussion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Preckwinkle remarked that former President Ronald Reagan deserves “a special place in hell” for his role in the war on drugs.
When the audience gasped, she asked, “What? You didn’t like that?”
Reasonable people can disagree on the Reagan administration’s drug policies. Reasonable people can believe, as we do, that he took too much of a punitive law enforcement approach, rather than a public health approach.
But we can disagree on policies without — quite literally — condemning the man.
Perhaps Preckwinkle momentarily thought she was back home in Hyde Park, trading liberal quips over wine and cheese.

 Mmmmmm, Perhaps? You think?

Nope. Toni kicks corpses - the late Saul Bellow, the multi-tiered Departed at Morgue(s) Cook County and why not the let President Ronald Reagan?

The Sun Times wants you to believe that Toni Preckwinkle is a deep thinker, a later day Simone de Beauvoir, when in fact she is a 40 Watt sour-puss.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chicago/
http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/14636041-474/editorial-toni-preckwinkles-goofy-circle-of-hell.html

Toni Preckwinkle is not Evil; She is Bone Stupid

That Toni Preckwinkle!  What a howl!  She's the Crypt Keeper ( Cook County Morgue) and yet, she managed to dump all of the corpses on Dr. Jones AND get the Sun Times Editorial Board to help.

Toni Preckwinkle is not evil; she is bone stupid and that always helps as a Progressive. . . anywhere and especially here in Cook County.

I remember Toni, from back in the days when she fell down an open manholes on the way from City Hall to the State of Illinois Building. Wasn't that a time?

I remember Toni when she dumped on Chicago Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, after he was dead of course, as a racist.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle when she wore shoes from two very different pairs.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle . . .and I would love to forget that she is yet breathing my air.

Nevertheless, Toni Preckwinkle will always be with us, as long as there is a WTTW, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times - Carol Marin lifting thoughts from Laura Washington and Eric Zorn channeling the thoughts of the Brothers Klonsky.

Todd Stroger was seriously challenged, but Toni Preckwinkle is stupid and you can't fix stupid. You an only become a Progressive public money grabber. Stupid people depend upon formulae and always stick closely to the script.  They use teleprompters and memes, because an original thought would die of suffocation with the vapor-locked cavern between their ears.

Marijuana demands to be free!  Dopers allied with academic and lawyers with Progressive crendentials years ago and made legalization of drugs an identity politics adjunct.  Movies, like Traffic, appealed to the Smart Set -"Yeah, whom do drugs most harm, Hmmmm?"  The War on Drugs is a Drag, because it thickens prison yards, shoots up the community and denies dweebs the freedom to choose to get smoked up and baked. Toni Preckwinkle is doing for dope what Joe Moore did for goose guts.

Today, the Cook County Board President let her inner Toni out at an event dubbed a leadership conference hosted by the most fatuous ninny to sit in the Governor's Chair until Pat Quinn -GOP Jim Edgar and the ears at U of I  pricked up for the War on Drugs:

That’s when she said Reagan deserved “a special place in hell,” a comment that produced a discernible gasp among conferees, according to some in attendance.
She then, jokingly, said, “What, you didn’t like that?” the witnesses said.
Rose declined comment about her remarks or his exchange with Preckwinkle during what had been billed to attendees as an “off-the-record” discussion, though media representatives from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and WBBM-TV were not told about those ground rules.
Preckwinkle offered no excuses. She later told the Sun-Times, “It was a conference and wasn’t supposed to be a media event, but when you speak in front of reporters it is a media event.”

The woman who wore the jacket for the Crypt Keeper of Cook County, Dr. Jones called Toni evil and Toni Preckwinkle damned Ronald Reagan, long dead of course, to Hell.

Toni Preckwinkle is in no way evil.

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.  Bone stupid makes evil happen.


http://www.suntimes.com/14641564-761/preckwinkle-sorry-she-said-reagan-deserves-special-place-in-hell-for-war-on-drugs.html

Leo High School Football Schedule 2012

It's Fall in Chicago, well almost.  It is time for the Leo Lions -Orange and Black terrors of the gridiron, brawny stalwarts all,  to take the field!  It is time to move pigskin ellipsoid over the goal-lines of foes!  That means it is time for my phone in the Alumni/Development cubicle to flash red with messages!

" When are you gonna send out the #$%^^&^ athletic schedules?"

As they have yet to return from the printers, I have been helped by Leo Alumnus Dan Moss who googled the Football Schedule off of the IHSA site.  I have been far too pre-occupied with my new CVS hand-sanitizer (32Fl.oz.) and driving duties delivering the Bronzeville/Canaryville crowd to Leo High School -my thoughts are less than at their usual  razor-honed and articulated state of readiness.

We open Friday Night at St. Laurence High School -

The Freshman at 5 PM

Varsity at & 7:30PM
N.B. We have an op-en date on the week of September 15, 2012.  We will notify you of the changes.


.

			Leo Football Schedule 2012
Date	Time		Opponent
24-Aug	7:30	A	Burbank (St. Laurence)	1172
1-Sep	1:30	A	Chicago (Hales Franciscan)	246
7-Sep	7:30	A	Chicago (St. Ignatius College Prep)	1382	Univ. of Chicago
22-Sep	7:00	H	Washington (Friendship Academy), DC		Gately Stadium
29-Sep	3:00	H	Westchester (St. Joseph)	675	Stagg Stadium
6-Oct		H	Chicago (Gordon Tech)	434	TBA
12-Oct	7:30	A	Kankakee (McNamara)	608.85
19-Oct	7:00	A	Chicago (Brother Rice)	2778.6	St. Xavier

Why Am I Not a Republican? I Like My Toes

Traditional GOP Footwear

The goof from Missouri who seemed to have a clear path to the United States Senate and replace Claire McCaskill, a bused-over Obama mouthpiece, is a Republican. All the guy needed to do for the next two months and change was make the rounds of the Show-Me State Knights of Columbus, Odd Fellows, and League of Women Voter library soirees and gobble rubber chicken.  Instead, Rep.  Todd Akin decided to dip his foot in his tonsils on TV with a guy named Jaco. Jaco? That did not signal DISTRESS, Congressman? Jaco?  The last guy I recall with the handle of Jaco wore a glove on one mitt, played with a monkey and drank boxed wine with little kids.

Instead, Todd Akin blew off his own toes.

I have been a Democrat all of my life.  The Democrats have purged the Party of people like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Scoop Jackson, Harry Truman, Old Man Daley, Mike Sheahan, Frank Annunzio and Marty Russo for the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Anthony Weiner and the goof who thinks Guam will tip over.

I have been a Catholic all my life and managed to survive Clown Masses, Liturgical Dance, Help for Hamas, Liberation Jesus and Homosexual predators and the Purple Mafia Bishops who doled out the  get out of jail free cards.  Today, the American Catholic Church is coming back and Catholics are coming home thanks to doctrinal-authentic bishops like Cardinal George, Cardinal Dolan and priests like Father Bob Barron.

I hope the same for the Democratic Party - a return to authentic values and 1st Principles.  There is some hope.  My Congressman Dan Lipinski (D.3rd) defends real labor over the leftist public service PACS like SEIU and the life of the unborn child is his litmus test.

The GOP, while attractive in some respects,  stilll manages to front daffy old balls like Illinois Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka, the Minnesota Toe-Tapper of Airport Men's Rooms, and the Missouri Magpie -Todd Akin over genuine and talented people like Dan Proft. These are the "tassled loafer" crowd of GOP deep-thinkers who enable the likes of Pat Quinn.   When School Choice was possible to pass in the Illinois Legislature it was the suburban DuPage, McHenry and Lake County Republicans who sold out.

The GOP vets goofs in the same manner as the Democrats, with one huge difference - the media will not provide cover for Republicans.

Voila!

When TV reporter Charles Jaco asked Akin whether abortion should be illegal if it is the result of rape, the Republican Party Missouri Senate candidate gave this inglorious answer: "From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something: You know, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist and not attacking the child."

Republicans are much more prone to let off a volley down-range!  By golly!  Down-range to the GOP often means -The Toes Goes!

Illinois GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady was an adept at shooting off his own piggies.  He allowed WLS drive-time wits Roe & Roeper to corner him on his tax returns.  Brady allowed Personal PAC of Illinois Planned Parenthood to manage the message that Brady Wars on Women without a chirp.  Pat Quinn is the governor who takes orders from Illinois Personal PAC's Boss Terry Cosgrove.

Nope, I'll remain a right of center Democrat.  I like my toes.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/21/todd_akin_when_dumb_talk_is_inevitable_115164.html

Paradise Lost, My Ass!

“Thus it shall befall Him, who to worth in women over-trusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; And left to herself, if evil thence ensue She first his weak indulgence will accuse.” 

Not this Cat, G!

http://www.neatorama.com/

Tales of The South Side: Garage Band Aid - My 1960's Tour Bus was CTA

I was taller in real life . . . or, so I am told.

Smilin' Jack Merrins was two years ahead of me, at St. Augustine Minor Seminary* in Holland, Michigan where I spent the first three years of high school.  Like four of my classmates from Little Flower Grammar School Class of 1966, ( JC, SB, PO'C, & PM,), PFH thought of becoming an Augustinian Brother.  We were recruited by the late Father Dudley Day O.S.A.

I improved my smoking habits, participated in athletics with gusto, completely avoided any familiarity with chemistry, physics. math and the lesser sciences and learned Latin, Spanish, Literature, History, Government,  as well as more chords on the guitar and how to sing into a microphone. We had a band. In fact, we had many bands.  We had many bands in order to use up the few minutes of the day where mortal sin might become an issue.  We were by circumstance and indoctrination celibate.

Smilin' Jack Merrin was from St. Louis, Mo, where he fronted a band call Le Clades Blades - an eight piece rhythm and blues rock band of guitar, bass, Farfesa organ, drum kit and brass & reed. Smilin Jack vocalized.

Here at St. Augustine's -Smilin Jack's ax was Sax and Vox.  I played guitar, Lurch Palauskas -the Lithuanian Lover -banged keyboard and Brian "Bing" Bell hit the skins and did back-up vocals.

We covered these hits -

1. "Mama Get Your Hammer (There's a Fly on Baby's Head)," by the Bobby Peterson Quintet.
2. "When There's Tears in the Eyes of a Potato," by the Hoosier Hot Shots.
3. "I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones," by the Hoosier Hot Shots.
4. "She Was Bitten on the Udder by an Adder," by Homer & Jethro.
5. "A Bowl of Chop Suey and You-ey," by Sam Robbins & His Hotel McAlpin Orchestra.
6. "I've Got Tears in My Ears From Lying on My Back in Bed While I Cry Over You," by Homer & Jethro.
7. "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life," by Fred Astaire and Jane Powell.

8. "I'd Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me (Than a Frontal Lobotomy)," by Randy Hanzlick, M.D. 

At no time did we violate ASCAP or BMI regulations

(Dr. Demento says Hanzlick is--or was, as of 1980--a real internist in Atlanta, who writes songs for a hobby). 

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x132294923/St-Augustine-Seminary-graduates-bring-spirit-of-history-to-reunion

http://www.ascap.com/

*“I got a great education here,” said Edd Boyd of the class of 1963, one of the 60 alumni at the first overall reunion of the St. Augustine Seminary, a Catholic high school from 1949-1977 on what is now Shore Acres Park in Laketown Township. “I enjoyed the four years I spent here. It was rather idyllic.” . . . The property was originally the home of Dorr Felt, the inventor of the first adding machines. The Augustinians bought the property in 1949.
The order sold the property to the state in the late 1970s and the buildings were converted into a prison. Laketown Township bought the mansion and surrounding land in the 1990s and the prison was leveled. The mansion is being restored to the Felt-family era and the grounds around it are now a park with a disc golf course, trails and access to a beach on Lake Michigan.

100 Years of Chicago Catholic League and The Hound of Heaven

Yesterday, hundreds of people from around Chicago and as far away as Tennessee gathered at Holy Family Church on west Roosevelt Rd. to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Chicago Catholic League*.

The Chicago Catholic League is the oldest Catholic high school athletic association in America and the incubator of some of the best athletes in our country.  The Mass was con-Celebrated by priests who are school leaders ( St. Ignatius, Mt. Carmel, Gordon Tech, St. Rita, Loyola & etc.) and stepping in as chief-celebrant for Francis Cardinal George - Auxiliary Bishop Frank Kane.

Bishop Kane noted the unique history of the Catholic League and its roots in the 1896 Olympics founded on the ideals of a Dominican secondary school in Paris - Faster, Higher, Stronger. Earlier that afternoon, I thumbed through a rare volume of a poem by Francis Thompson (1859-1907).  The book had been part of Catholic and private school curriculum reading, before  biology-based Deweyism murdered the idea of education in America.


Through Bishop Kane's sermon, as is my rubbing necking wont, I swivel-necked  from both transcepts  with a stop at the apse and onto the vast nave making a sign of the cross with my noggin. To my left were the representative athletes who carried a banner from each school, at center was the altar and choir/orchestra on the right the Bishop and the concelebrant priests and deacons and in the thick nave Catholic League greats, parents, student athletes and my colleagues. Thompson's poem roared louder than the flights of F-18s from the Blue Angels entertaining Chicagoans on the lake front and looping lowly over Roosevelt Road and Holy Family Church.



The Hound of Heaven is 182 line fable as allegory - a hare (rabbit) flees its predator running faster, jumping higher and stronger as the poem develops.   The idea of the hare as quarry is common.  The idea of God as the Hound is unusual. The idea is that we ( me and you) run from God all of our lives and He -The Hound of Heaven pursues us to our last bolt-hole.

The language is wildly archaic ( e.g. Dravest: Thou dravest for You drove dead old white men and patriarchal hegemonists tend to do that) and obscure.   The sense is that we drive God from us and use all of our strength and skills and talents to do escape God.  God pursues us rabbits who dravest Him off - I know I run from God, given some elbow room, via health, security, comfort and self-satisfied ego.

We teach and encourage our young to run swift, vault high and increase in strength.  Ironically, those virtues seem to help us rabbits scurry from God.  We do not want to be Pharisees - religious show-offs; therefore we make light of the faith and pretend to skulk in the shadows like the Publican.

The poem ends with God ( The Hound of Heaven) nailing the rabbit ( us) and proclaiming-"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."
This morning I will collect my Canaryville Rabbit-Lions from 43rd Street and bring them to Leo High School, one of the old Chicago Catholic League schools.

I not only dravest God's love, but the bus five days a week.

Once I post this,  I'll drave.


http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30730/30730-h/30730-h.htm

http://www.chicagocatholicleague.com/Documents/NavLink/CCL_SCHOOL_FIGHT_SONGS_uid1202011909531.pdf













*

It all began on October 3, 1912 when representatives of eight parochial schools met in Chicago’s Great Northern Hotel (demolished in 1992) to found the Catholic League. Those charter members were Loyola academy, St. Cyril (Mt Carmel), DePaul Academy, St. Philip, St. Ignatius, De La Salle, Cathedral and St. Stanislaus. In that very first year of its existence the League sponsored only basketball and indoor baseball. Football competition was to follow in the 1913-14 school year, track in 1916-17 swimming, golf, and tennis in 1923-24, cross country in 1946-47, wrestling in 1964-65, water polo in 1965-66, soccer in 1967 and volleyball in 1993. Baseball was dropped after the 1930 season but was reinstated in the 1957-58 season.

For the first 71 years of its existence, the Chicago Catholic League operated independently of the Illinois high school association (IHSA). The League’s renown, especially in football and basketball, was recognized nationwide. But, during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, as the need developed for a wider base of competition especially in such sports as swimming, track, wrestling, golf, tennis and baseball, the principals of the League’s schools began to consider the possibility of joining the IHSA. After much discussion, many arguments over pros and cons, and several meetings with the IHSA staff, the Catholic League’s Principals voted 11-1 in favor of joining the State Association. Thought the momentous vote was taken on January 30, 1973, the actual entrance into the IHSA did not take place until June 10, 1974. The reason for the 18 month wait was to give the League a full year of athletic competition during which it could make the transition to those rules and practices of the IHSA which differed from those current at the time in the Catholic League. Though there was a multitude of objections from many in the Catholic League to the decision to join IHSA, the benefits that have accrued to the Catholic League schools and students since 1974 have far outweighed the original objections

Chicago Catholic League 100th Anniversary Mass

LEO's Jay Standing -“My junior year we made the playoffs and I think we lost to Mendel. My senior year we tied Rita and we played Gordon Tech at Soldier Field Stadium. At halftime, I was sprawled out, I was so tired and the manager came out and said: ‘There are some Notre Dame people here and if you play well, you can get a scholarship.’ I told him just to get away. We beat Gordon Tech and then we played Loyola the following week but we lost to them.It was the worst game that everybody had. Loyola beat us up and down. They won fair and square. I played running back but I also played flanker. We had a quarterback that could throw the ball a mile but I could never got off the line. I was a big part of the offense. I could catch the ball and run like the wind, and it was so easy for me. Loyola would double team me, and I could never get the ball. Loyola ended up being in the Prep Bowl.”

Thats's Catholic League!

For one hundred years, The Catholic League of Chicago has provided young men and women an opportunity to excel in athletics.

Today, at Holy Family Church on Chicago's near west side, a Mass will be celebrated by Francis Cardinal George in commemoration of this century of Faith, Fellowship and Family.

CHICAGO CATHOLIC LEAGUE - 100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

The Chicago Catholic League and its member schools cordially invite you to the one hundredth anniversary celebration on Sunday, August 19, 2012.   Mass will be celebrated at 3:00 PM in Holy Family Church - 1080 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Illinois.  A reception will follow at 4:30 PM at St. Ignatius College Prep - 1076 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Illinois.

http://www.leohsalumniassoc.com/alumni%20stories/standring/standring.html

Francis Cardinal George - One of Us! We are all Supplicant Lions!

Catholics are supplicants.  From the time we first learn to chatter, we are taught to ask for help, intercession, aid and comfort; we beseech.  We supplicate - ask humbly, earnestly and with faith.  Our prayers are chock-filled with verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns rooted in the Latin past participle -supplicatus/supplicare.

Catholics are required to go where help is most forthcoming, through intercessors.  We also pray in Adoration, Confession and Thanksgiving, but intercession and prayers of intercession are recognition of our helpnessess and subordination to others more capable giving aid -beyond our family, friends, co-workers and most certainly beyond Google, MSNBC,  our Advanced Degrees hanging on our walls and the guys at the local bar.

Catholicism runs counter to Thoreau, Emerson and Dewey.  Outcomes can not be determined by data. Nature can not be apprehended by legislation, policy, or desire for outcomes.

Catholics pray not to fix things, but to reconcile ourselves to God and Nature.  We fix things by paying for them whether they be hips, knees, gutters or unpaid parking tickets.  We can not lawyer up with God's Universe.  Catholics asks humbly and earnestly to keep faith. The absolute best prayer is the Memorare*

On the first day of classes at Leo High School, Thursday last, a giant child of a freshman and one of my morning transport lads, Daylon F. of Bronzeville was waiting for his schedule after being fitted for his uniform polo shirt.  Daylon is 6'3" in height and every bit of 300 lbs and change at 14 years old. Daylon got himself a XXXXX(5)L.

This Mannish Boy was staring at the wonderful life size crucifix with attached kneeler that dominates the wait area outside of my Development cubicle.  He asked me, " What's the INRI on the top of the cross mean?"

Daylon, like so many Leo Men, is non-Catholic.  More so , there are too many Catholic kids who do not learn that theological-historical tidbit in their eight years of Catholic grammar school anymore.

"INRI??? What's that?"

The Romans did not have the letter J and they used I instead.  Jesus was IESUS pronounced Yeah Sus, or something like that.

"What's INRI mean?"

That was the charge Jesus found guilty of violating by the Roman Court - Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

" Damn, that's a crime ?"

A capital crime to the Romans - no king BUT Caesar and the Caesar at that time was Tiberius and he was real piece of work.

"Why a crime."

The Romans wanted nothing but attention to government -everyone and everywhere and the Romans did everything according to law. There is no wiggle room. It says, on that plate in no uncertain terms that Jesus of Nazareth, IS King of the Jews and only Caesar can make a King - like Herod and his old man.  This execution settled it.

" But it didn't."

No it certainly did not.  Jesus rose from the dead and over turned the court's ruling.

Daylon gets it.  He said Jesus "prayed to His Father and Father rose Him from the Dead."

No one does it alone, pal.

Daylon is at Leo because of Mike Holmes, Mark Lee,  Dan McGrath, Rich Furlong, Jim Furlong, Jim Arvetis, Andy McKenna, Frank Considine, John Gardner, Bill Koloseike, Bob Sheehy, Jackie Schaller, Bernie Pepping, Jim Corbett, and seven thousand other Leo Alumni who give money all year.  Even guys who might not have enough money to give volunteer, come to games and most of all pray for Daylon, whom they have yet to meet.  Daylon has Francis Cardinal George backing his play; Cardinal George is a Leo Alumnus.  He is one of us.

We take care of each other.  This summer, one of us, a classmate of Daylon was murdered -

Chicago police said Antonio Davis, 14, was shot and killed Friday night near 69th and Union around 8:40 p.m.A day later, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in the 6200-block of South Rhodes. Neighbors said there was a large party at the home where the boy was shot that spilled into the street.Also, a 14-year-old and 15-year-old are recovering from being shot while playing basketball near their home Saturday night. It happened around 8:43pm in the 2400-block of East 74th Street. The two victims were playing when a gunman approached on foot and opened fire, striking the two.Davis' family said he was an A and B student at Leo High School and had dreams of becoming a basketball player."I just know that he was walking to the store to get my niece's baby water and a car pulled up and jumped out at him and shot him" said Davis' aunt, Latrice Strong

Dan McGrath called the Leo community.  Leo paid for the gravesite and the repast held at the school.  Mr. Leak of the Funeral home handled the funeral, Dwayne Wade's mother preached the funeral - Dwayne Wade was coached and mentored by Leo Man Jack Fitzgerald. Antonio Davis attended one week of summer school - he was a Leo Man.  Cardinal George is a Leo Man, Daylon is a Leo Man and we are all supplicants.

Cardinal George has cancer. He is one of us.  We are all supplicants. There are seven thousand and change Leo Men saying the Memorare - a prayer of intercession and supplication,  Help and provide, Mary Mother of God, one of our own - old school and new school versions.

MEMORARE, O piissima Virgo Maria,
non esse auditum a saeculo, quemquam ad tua currentem praesidia,
tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia,
esse derelictum.
Ego tali animatus confidentia,
ad te, Virgo Virginum, Mater, curro,
ad te venio, coram te gemens peccator assisto.
Noli, Mater Verbi,
verba mea despicere;
sed audi propitia et exaudi.
Amen.

Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to Thy protection,
implored Thy help or sought Thine intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother;
to Thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in Thy mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

*A prayer beginning, "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary." Of unknown authorship, it has been attributed to St. Augustine, to St. John Chrysostom, and with more reason to St. Bernard or to Claude Bernard, "poor priest" of Paris. Passages in sermons of St. Bernard echo the theme (PL 183:428), but none comes close to the actual wording of the Memorare. The manuscript tradition can be traced only to the 15th century. It appears as a section of a longer prayer in the Antidotarius animae of Nicolas Salicetus (1489). J. Wellinger included it, possibly as a separate invocation, in his Hortulus animae (1503). Claude Bernard (1588–1641) …

Leo Driver Diaries - Canaryville to Leo High School

August 16, 2012  "Canaryville is a predominantly Irish American neighborhood, with borders from 40th to 49th streets between Union Pacific railroad ..."

Canaryville (St. Gabriel's Parish)  gave Leo High School hundreds of great men - Bro Farrell, Fr. Bill McFarlan, Dean Fuller, A Score of Brackin Boys,  Hugs Hughes, Square Lanham, John Caponera, Gabe Caponera, Lt. John Lehner, CFD and now Canaryville is back.

I get to Leo High School before 5AM, after picking up a box of 50 glazed Munchkins and a 20 oz. coffee.  The donut holes are for the gents that I will pick up and the coffee is mine.  At Leo High School, at 79th & Sangamon Street in the heart of Gresham,  I answer e-mails and do prospect research  beyond the Leo Alumni who give lavishly to their Alma Mater.  President Dan McGrath and I are widening the shores of the giving pond and reaching out to private and corporate sponsors.  These generous individuals, foundations and corporations provide much needed revenue to off-set tuition costs and also sponsor projects for capital improvement.

The biggest need in the last several years has been tuition assistance which, due to the lousy economy, cancerous unemployment and rising water, lighting, gas, insurance and up-keep expenses, eats into operating expenses.  You can set tuition, but families can only pay what they are able to pay. The balance is made up in fund-raising.  Increasing enrollment has helped some.

Last year, Leo welcome the first white student in decades to this Catholic college prep school for young men.  The previous year, the first Hispanic graduate in decades was our Gates Millenium Scholar, Eder Cruz; his success changed this school's demographic from 100% African American to Leo Diverse!

Five more Hispanic gents enrolled as did one young man from St. Gabe's parish in Canaryville.   Ten more white ethnc ( Catholics) enrolled, entered the summer school program and the 2013 Freshman Class.  More Carnaryvillians are expected in the next few weeks. Two others, who intended to begin high school here opted to attend De LaSalle Insitute in their own backyard.

These ten gents are tough.  Their parents work hard.  Canaryville is reputed to be one of the toughest neighborhoods in America - always has been.  It is to Chicago as Hell's Kitchen is to NYC.   My Mom's family were Canaryville tribesmen.  Her Dad had been a Ragen Colt, as well as a Lather.  Her uncle was a Ragen Colt as well as a Viatorian priest.  They were called Earl and Headsy - the Donahue boys. How one became Earl, when baptized a Francis is one of those Canaryville mysteries.  Tough is determined not so much by how much one can dish out, but by how much one can take.

Canaryville folks can take plenty. The myth goes something like this -



I drive one of the school vans to pick up Leo Students from Bronzeville and then Canaryville.  The van is Ford 15 passenger that also serves the athletic teams in the afternoons. To say the least, this conveyances gets a daily work-out that would exhaust Gale Sayers.

Here was yesterday's route:

6:40 - Depart Leo heading east on 79th Street to the Dan Ryan - construction crews are laying out barrier cones and barricades; gang trucks and back-hoes signal crowded and slow return trip. N.B. Classes begin at 7:45 AM.  Think, Hickey.
6:45 - Northbound on the Dan Ryan at State - remain in Local lanes - so good, so far.

6: 50 Exit at 35th Street and head east to Dr. Martin Luther King Drive; take a left into the lot of BP Gas station. Wait. Big Daylon . . .freshman 14 years old and sports a XXXXXL  Leo Polo shirt -6'3" and all of 350+ lbs.  and the kid can move. Daylon smiles gets to work on the Munchkin box.

7:00 - 7:14 AM Now, head out to Canaryville - 35th Street East to Wentworth frontage over by Sox Park  Head south to 43rd Street; go left to 
558 West 43rd Street - Pizza Nova - Pick up Two

7:15 Head East to 35th & Emerald take a left south to Graham Elementary parking lot - there they are!

A Collection of Youthful Hope and Determination.

" How come no Chocalate Milk, Mr. Hickey?"

When you guys all make Honor Roll on October, then we'll negotiate the breakfast menu.  Eat what's there.

" Thanks! No Powder! Awesome! AJ give over!  BK you got five! So? Can we stop at Subway?  The air's too cold. You listen to Old Man music. . . .," Remembering the street work, I exit at 75th grooveup to 76th head east and pass the big dark brown apartment building at 76th Union where I was born and continue to Morgan

7:35 AM - Leo Parking Lot and the tribe alights!

Is this a great life, or what?

Chicago -Meet Samuel Johnson's "London"

 Not too much has changed in human nature and in politics. The virtuous people get the shaft and the artful dodgers get more pie.  There has always been group think and wormy acceptance of public frauds and their policies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is very much like Jack Wilkes.

Jack Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, was journalist/demagogue of the 18th Century, who used radical rhetoric to become a political icon and autocrat.  London was a pest hole of corruption vice and gang-violence.  "Wilkes and Liberty!" was the shout of the day and murders were as common as flies on an uncollected corpse.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, poet, scholar, wit and Tory.  A Tory was a conservative who believed in God, King and Country.  Tories arose from the Cavalier Party which took the side of the Monarchy over Oliver Cromwell's progressive dictatorship.  In modern sensibilities, President Obama is much akin to Oliver Cromwell.  The word Tory comes from the Irish word - tóraidhe; - which means Outlaw.

How's that for irony?

If you believe today that abortion is murder, you are an outlaw.  If you believe today that marriage is between a man and woman, you are an outlaw.  If you believe today that the sweat of your brow is your capital, you are an outlaw.

Jack Wilkes as Mayor of London encouraged an Occupy Movement that railed against King George, his wars in America, and Catholics.  In 1778 and act to end anti-Popery Laws in England against Roman Catholics ( which were not unlike Obama's HHS Mandate), angered the 18th Century MSNBC-like pamphleteers and they the mob.  The words King Mob became the 99%ers of London.  The Gordon Riots against Catholics, the King and the Bank of England broke out in 1780.

Guess what; when the Mob ( 99%er OWS of London) marched on the Bank of England, Rahm Wilkes ordered the militia to fire of the crowd.

Dr. Johnson wrote of his London:

Besides, with Justice, this discerning Age
Admires their wond'rous Talents for the Stage:
Well may they venture on the Mimic's art,
Who play from Morn to Night a borrow'd Part;
Practis'd their Master's Notions to embrace,
Repeat his Maxims, and reflect his Face;
With ev'ry wild Absurdity comply,
And view each Object with another's Eye;
To shake with Laughter ere the Jest they hear,
To pour at Will the counterfeited Tear;
And as their Patron hints the Cold or Heat,
To shake in Dog-days, in December sweat.

How, when Competitors like these contend,
Can surly Virtue hope to fix a Friend?
Slaves that with serious Impudence beguile,
And lye without a Blush, without a Smile;
Exalt each Trifle, ev'ry Vice adore,
Your Taste in Snuff, your Judgment in a Whore;
Can Balbo's Eloquence applaud, and swear
He gropes his Breeches with a Monarch's Air.

Those are Chicago Values, kids!

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/london.html
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/summer03/wilkes.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots