London, 1928:Mr. Belloc Called it Right, But There Is Still Time To Get It Right

I guess Bill O'Reilly and John Stewart went at it last night.  They had a debate -  A gifted comic genius and an ego on steroids.  

John Stewart is brilliant.  Bill O'Reilly has a massive following.  Politically, I might be closer to O'Reilly, but that is about it.  I don't get the guy.  John Stewart on the other hand has a mind like a Swiss CPA and good humor and comic timing of a Chicago Homicide Detective.



I imagine John Stewart mopped the floor with Bloviating Bill.



Eighty four years ago, two literary giants went tusk to tusk in London  George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton. Read the debate. I am going to see a dramatic presentation of this event this afternoon at the Provision Theatre* ( 1001 West Roosevelt Road).  



The conclusion by the moderator, Hilaire Belloc is the pay-off.



Mr. Belloc scored the only real hit in the verbal combat with his prophetic analysis of the end of the industrial age.


MR. BELLOC:  I was told when I accepted this onerous office
that I was to sum up.  I shall do nothing of the sort.
In a very few years from now this debate will be antiquated.
I will now recite you a poem:
    "Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    Let us chant in rotation
    Our civilization
    That lump of damnation
    Without any soul,
    Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    "In a very few years,
    It will float upon oil.
    Then give three hearty cheers,
    In a very few years
    We shall mop up our tears
    And have done with our toil.
    In a very few years
    It will float upon oil."
In I do not know how many years--five, ten, twenty--this debate
will be as antiquated as crinolines are.  I am surprised that
neither of the two speakers pointed out that one of three things
is going to happen.  One of three things:  not one of two.
It is always one of three things.  This industrial civilization which,
thank God, oppresses only the small part of the world in which we
are most inextricably bound up, will break down and therefore
end from its monstrous wickedness, folly, ineptitude,
leading to a restoration of sane, ordinary human affairs,
complicated but based as a whole upon the freedom of the citizens.
Or it will break down and lead to nothing but a desert.
Or it will lead the mass of men to become contented slaves,
with a few rich men controlling them.  Take your choice.
You will all be dead before any of the three things comes off.
One of the three things is going to happen, or a mixture of two,
or possibly a mixture of the three combined. (emphases my own)

After finally watching the Obama/Romney debate which I recorded, I re-read the above.

Mitt Romney gets what Belloc spoke about, especially his fifteen words about using clean coal as a path to relieving some of our economic burden. The day after the debate, I read where coal stocks soared on the markets.  President Barack Obama fully embraces the words of Belloc that I emphasized in dark ink.

*

Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate

Review by Lauren Whalen 

Opposites attract: the principle doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. To quote one of my favorite sitcoms, “We’re friends. We don’t need to have anything in common.”George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton – two of the finest literary minds of the 20th century – had very little in common. Shaw was an atheist, socialist and vegetarian, while Chesterton was a Christian distributist who loved meat. Yet the two remained best friends who relished a stirring yet respectful debate. Based on actual exchanges between the playwright and journalist, Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate is an intelligent peek into the minds of two brilliant men, though the talk-heavy format may not appeal to everyone.

The play begins with Shaw (Lawrence McCauley) and Chesterton (Brad Armacost) preparing for an onstage debate, while bantering playfully and assisting moderator Belloc (Michael Downey) with his bloody nose. Throughout an intermission-less 85 minutes, Shaw and Chesterton interact with audience members, tease Belloc and embark on friendly verbal sparring: first on the topics of politics and religion, then in a “lightning round” with spectator input. But Chesterton has a secret that, when revealed, will throw Shaw for a loop and could change the friendship forever.Some elements of Shaw vs. Chesterton feel superfluous: for example, Inseung Park’s otherwise spot-on set design includes chairs bolted to the walls. Why is that necessary? Also, the play opens with Jim Poole’s video compilation of famous debates from this century and last, involving Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Richard Nixon, among others. Because this audience is attending a play with the word “debate” in the title – and most of them have probably watched television in the past decade – they are well aware of what a debate actually entails and don’t need it spelled out for them.

And at its core, Shaw vs. Chesterton is just that: an hour-plus-long debate. Only two scenes showcase Shaw and Chesterton’s relationship outside of the back-and-forth: more human and less showy, these were my favorites, and I wanted more of the same. While the talk of property and religion is both interesting and frighteningly relevant, I wasn’t always engaged. I could appreciate the intellectual sparring, but I wanted to learn more about the men themselves and their unique friendship.

Despite a script that doesn’t always compel, the three actors have a wonderful time onstage and share this joy with the audience. Downey brings a light comic touch to his moderator role, with relatable frustration when the sparring gets slightly out of control. As Chesterton, Armacost articulates conservative beliefs with a jolly fervor and a deep respect for his opponent. And McCauley’s bombastic and hilarious Shaw radiates wit and good humor with flawless delivery of lines such as “I’m an atheist – and I thank God for it!” He wields his pocket watch like a weapon, dispelling the friendliest of fire, with brotherly love for Chesterton shining through every syllable.

As this contentious election year has proved, people find comfort in their beliefs. They also find comfort in each other. Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate effectively illustrates what happens when two brilliant individuals agree to disagree, chatting all the way.Timothy Gregory’s direction of two stellar actors is promising – if only his adaptation had been more engaging.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-bill-oreilly-debatemt1thewrap59586-20121006,0,7546780.story

My World and the Men Who See It As I Do.

In the best light, of course . . .



. . .and in the full light of  a gernerally overcast day . . .Hickey in Full! The Yin and Yang of Being Me -moved and moved upon!

Moonlight - What it Can do? It Can Serenade

Image:Ken Williams, Shadow and Stone :"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.” Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)






Most fitting and it becomes you all!

MSNBC's Own Toure -"If you just have a bunch of white people, you’re gonna come up with alternate realities that don’t make any sense."

Speak on it, My Brother!




Yeah, them alternate realities do get troublesome. there, Wife Oaks.

Progressive Ballet - Rahm Knifes Labor - "which there's a history at"

Progressives detest working people.  Always have and they always will.  Organized Labor helped create the American Middle Class.  Progressives tend to come from above the Middle Class. Always have and they always will.

Anyone who has read about, much less studied the history of the American Labor Movement understands this reality.  Read serious scholars of labor like J. Anthony Lucas who in his magnificent epic Big Trouble detailed the reality of radical versus real labors conflict in coming to terms with American values, law and society.

Radicals wanted labor to morph into an international Marxist wave and real labor wanted to scratch out a comfortable life free from want for American workers.  Guess who won?

In the last twenty years, American labor has played ball with Progressives who want only Class Warfare as means of grabbing power and eliminating the American middle class.

Skilled trades have always demanded rigorous apprenticeship programs and autonomy.  Local # 007 should not allow the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois, or the United States Government to dictate
its policies and practices.  Skilled trades are always the target of the Progressive media for idiotic and inflammatory columns and editorials condemning the fact that a back-hoe operating engineer is paid the prevailing wage.  One never reads an investigative series about the Marxists running SEIU, on the other hand, nor any questions posed about the enslavement of low-skilled and no skilled workers who comprise its membership. Once in SEIU, never out. . . .unless finally unemployed and unemployable.

Today, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fully reveals his Progressive pedigree - a backstabbing radical sneak.

Progressives get into government by the back-door deal. Name one Progressive in government who actually has a record of accomplishment, accountability, skill, loyalty, or honesty.  I do not have all day. I have work to do and so do you.  That's rhetorical question.

Progressives are placed in government by soulless elected officials who have managed to scratch out a lucrative deal with the job slot as the quid pro quo.  Most Progressives in government are initially appointed and eventually moved around away from the people they have harmed or the job they have botched, until such times as other bigger or more lucrative deals can be forged between Progressive dominated foundations, banks, family fortunes and media outlets needed by short-sighted, at best, politicians.

Once secured via -open slot on a ballot without opposition, or department chair, the Progressive gets a full media/PR - usually Marilyn Katz - Earl Scheib (Riiiight!!!!!!!!) body, fender and paint job that gets a baked-on enamel finish and glossy glow of Reformer, Boss-foe, Friend, Ally, Fighter, and Intellectual Titan!!!!!


Sheila Simon, Toni Preckwinkle, Mike Quigley, Deb Shore, Deb Mel, Jan Schakowsky, Forrest Claypool, Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanuel and President Obama all came up to prominence in this manner. We had a national peep at the reality of Progressive worth with the Presidential Debate.  There is no there -there.

Labor, real labor, has played a most dangerous game by aligning itself with Marxist public-salaried unions. More (membership and dues) is not always better.

Recently, community activists have stood blocking the entrance to Rainbow Cone on the east side of Western Ave. shouting " Go home to your own Casa!"  in honor of race harmony and economic justice.  Mexicans are working and blacks are not at a huge on-going construction project in Evergreen Park, Il. Black Capitalist and self-stated activist Edward Gardner heard the cries of Mexicans go home and jumped into the fray. Here is Progressive mouth-organ WBEZ's take on activist Ed in the pink skimmer.

Black nationalists, activists, workers and politicians marched up and down Western Avenue, chanting “If we don’t work, nobody work.”

The target was the site of a new Meijer location. The store, part of the big-box store grocery chain, is going up at 92nd and Western in the suburb of Evergreen Park.
Leading Sunday’s protest was 87-year-old Ed Gardner, founder of the iconic Soft Sheen hair care company.The millionaire has spoken extensively about the issue on black radio programs and has garnered massive support among African-Americans for picking up the mantle on the jobs issue.
A spokesman for the Meijer chain told WBEZ that officials have met with Gardner as well as the construction company. A letter on behalf of the company and contractor was sent pledging to support minority-owned businesses and contractors on the project.

Now, Ed Gardner, is a 1%er, like Fred Eychaner of pan-Gay Progressive capitalism, who gets a media pass on anything.  Ed is black, but not like Col. Allan West is black.  Being black means one must be linked to the Progressives or you become whiter than me, you see.

Rahm Emanuel gamboled pirouette à la seconde. Take Race, Beat Trades à la hauteur.

First of all, my staff has been in touch with Mr. Gardner. I think they’re meeting with him this morning, and they’ve met with him before. Mr. Gardner and I share the same goals, and the same objectives. We’ve talked about, where other cities are pulling back on public transportation, I just told you, we’ve got 400 permanent CTA bus driver jobs. We’ve got 200 to 300 jobs in rehabilitating our buses. We’re going to fix the Red Line, and over 30 percent of the work is going to be done by firms that are minority- and women-owned, and over 50 percent of that is African-American firms. On this particular project at 95-th. I talked to my staff, and as soon he said it was Hispanic and whites working on, I said, “Go check out what’s happened.” But remember, only a few years ago, the complaint was, “Nobody’s investing.” Now, we’re investing. The question is, “Now that we’re investing, who’s getting the work and who’s working on it?”…Now we’ve got to make sure that the building trades, which there’s a history at, which have not been opened to African-Americans and Hispanics and others, and minority children, make sure they have a training program, so the jobs that we’re investing in, and finally doing after years of not doing, are open to everybody in the city to apply for, and have the skill set so they, too can have that work.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Emanuel-Responds-To-African-American-Job-Protests-172472571.html#ixzz28QXyuEqH

Why has millionaire Ed Gardner not taken the old bull by the handsful?   Black capitalism has done pretty well.  What skills and paths to advancement has Ed Gardner offered to workers of SoftSheen (l'Oreal) products?  But that might be a distracting cul-de-sac on 87th Street.

No, this bone is not being offered for a vigorous picking with Ed Gardner; rather, Rahm Emanuel and Progressives.  Rahm shuffles the issue of hiring practices onto the building and construction trades ( who support the Progressive ballet artiste BTW) and with a wink of his Racconish eyes tosses the race card - trades are racist - which there’s a history at.

Progressives will always stab the people they use to get into power repeatedly in the back -kidneys lungs, livers and hearts.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Emanuel-Responds-To-African-American-Job-Protests-172472571.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/26/reviews/971026.26lingemt.html

When Barry Met Willard -" One Never Knows, Do One?"

I was watching the news last night and caught President Obama's assessment of the previous night's debate.

President Obama told a crowd in Denver on Thursday that he barely recognized the “spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney” at the debate the night before.
“It could not have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy,” Obama said. “The fellow on stage last night said he didn’t know anything about that.”
He continued with the riff: 

I can well understand the President's frustration.  Much like a child who has come to understand that a corpulent and hoary whiskered denizen of the Arctic Circle, given to festive red and smartly furred habiliments, does not, in fact, jet the stratosphere in a 19th century winter-conveyance, fueled by an octet of Rangifer tarandii each winter's Yuletide in order to deposit youthful plunder for Good Boys and Girls, President Obama really believes in the Willard Mitt Romney created by Marilyn Katz, the Daves (Axelrod & Plouffe) Planned Parenthood, SEIU, Sandy Fluke and offered wholesale on MSNBC.

Yes, Mr. President, there is a Mitt Romney, but he is a product of minds like the one's owned by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Big Ed Schultz. The Mitt Romney on stage is the Mitt Romney that they never told you about and he is the one who made you very, very sad the other night. I imagine your confusion, young fella - "Coal???? Nobody said anything about coal?  This guy loves coal, too. Isn't that a stocking stuffer for evil rich dudes and racist hillbillies and Catholics? You people told me Mormons had Harems!~!" 

There, there.

The President Obama that I know is the disappointed little chap who walked away from the podium wondering just what the Hell had happened.

I Guess the Debate Went to Romney

Must have been one tough ride home in the Presidential Limo!

I was reading and missed the debate.  Before leaving Leo High School for Bronzeville and  Canaryville this AM, I heard WLS host Dan Proft remark, " Well, to quote Cousin Eddie( Randy Quaid) from Vegas Vacation - 'I haven't seen a beating like that since some guy stuck a banana down my pants let loose a monkey.'

Thank God and John Kass - G-Men Meet Leo Men

John Kass again reports on the great young men of Leo High School.  Today, John presents the story of the visit of Jeremy Clark, Darryl Johnson and Mike Braxton to FBI Headquarters in Chicago.


At the start of the CPS Teacher Strike, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune paid a visit to Leo High School and talked to the great young men who work to become contributing people who will make a difference in Chicago's inner city.

Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, founded in 1926 at the orders of Cardinal George Mundelein to serve poor kids from neighborhoods south of the stockyards.  Leo has never been what some might call an elite secondary school and God willing never will be.  Some people term a school, that in reality is an exclusive school - where tuition and tests make it impossible for blue collar sons to find a seat in the classroom.  Leo is elite - it is blessed by God.

In the late 1960's, I heard street talk that Leo High School was on its last legs.  In the 1970's, when I began teaching high school, folks in the know  placed no chips on the Black and Orange ( Leo's Colors).  In the late 1980's, when I was teaching at La Lumiere School, alma mater of Justice of the United States John Roberts, word was out that Irish Christian Brothers were planning to leave Leo. In the 1990's Cardinal Bernardine ended all Archdiocesan financial support to Leo and the Irish Christian Brothers ended their sixty year presence at Leo, with exception of the heroic Brothers Rupert Finch and Steve O'Keefe.  Bob Foster became the first lay Principal in the school's history and the smart set gave fierce Foster  six months to one year until the Lion's roar would end.  The Lion roared louder behind the leadership and stewardship of the Leo Alumni. The Old Lion leaped into the New Millenium clawing and biting.  When President and CEO Bob Foster retired, everyone with half a brain sang the same old song.  Only a Father Pfleger could save Leo.  Wrong again.

Irish Christian Brothers, Cardinals, Educators, Business Wheels, and mythological heroes like Bob Foster and Mike Holmes,or quietly fierce leaders like Pete Doyle and Dan McGrath are merely human beings. Catholic schools are God centered.  God Provides.

Leo High School faces tough times financially and it always has. Enrollment goes up and down, because inner city families are challenged to pay what they honestly are able to do.  Support from Alumni and friends is always limited - there is only so much money. We would love to have piles of gold and swag to provide more for our wonderful, funny, challenging and sweet young gents, but we thank God for reach day, each gift and each opportunity to do more.

Life is prose and not poetry.  It is quotidian, messy, unsettling, costly and challenging - it is supposed to be. God provides the gestures from good souls like John Kass.

There is always God.  I do not believe that John Kass came to Leo merely to do a solid for old an pal, or get a great story. I believe that God's hand gave Kass's shoulder a shove. The same hand that wakes me up and sends me Leo High School, guides my hands on the wheel of the Canaryville van, keeps my tired old lamps focused on the proper Dan Ryan lanes and back to 79th & Sangamon with the Young Lions.

Thankl God it is not just up to me.

The Debate: President Obama ( played by Cab Calloway) and Mitt Romney ( presented by Austrian-born John Wengraf)

 "Scio opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum"   "I know your works ... that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name." (Apocalypse 3.8)

Got us a debate to night.Pass.

Made my mind up in 2007 and I am voting for the guy with the funny name.

I'm gonna read me some Tacitus (translated by Michael Grant) - Tiberius's trap of Sejanus seem fit.

Juvenal, Satire X
Sermones XAnd now the flames are hissing, and amid the roar of furnace and of bellows the head of the mighty Sejanus, the darling of the mob, is burning and crackling, and from that face, which was but lately second in the entire world, are being fashioned pipelines, basins, frying-pans and slip-pails!  Up with the laurel-wreaths over your doors!  Lead forth a grand chalked bull to the Capitol!  Sejanus is being dragged along by a hook, as a show and joy to all!  "What a lip the fellow had!  What a face!" - "Believe me, I never liked the man!" - " but on what charge was he condemned?  Who informed against him?  What was the evidence, who the witnesses, who made good the case?" - "Nothing of the sort; a great and wordy letter came from Capri." - "Good; I ask no more."     And what does the mob of Remus say?  It follows fortune, as it always does, and rails against the condemned.  That same rabble, if Nortia had smiled upon the Etruscan, if the aged Emperor had been struck down unaware, would in that very hour have conferred upon Sejanus the title of Augustus.  Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two thing - Bread and Games!     "I hear that many are to perish." - "No doubt of it; there is a big furnace ready." - "My friend Brutidius looked a trifle pale when I met him at the Altar of Mars.  I tremble lest the defeated Ajax should take vengeance for having been so ill defenced."- "Let us rush headlong and trample on Caesar's enemy, while he lies upon the bank!" - "Ay, and let our slaves see that none bear witness against us, and drag their trembling master into court with a halter round his neck."     Such was the talk at the moment about Sejanus; such were the mutterings of the crowd.   translation by G. G. Ramsay

Senator Barack "Quiet Riots" Obama is President Obama

 

I reported on then Senator Barack Obama's Hampton Univeristy speech of June 2007, when he had entered the race for President. Thus 'quiet riot'
The transcript of Senator Obama's remarks were redacted, rather laundered, by the media at that time. I linked that in a March 2008 post yet again when Senator Obama lectured America on Race in his Teaching Moment that tossed United Church of Christ Black Liberation scholar/preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the path of the bus that would soon bump over the man and his works.  Here is what ABC news provided from the Hampton University Speech which I labeled as the 'Quiet Riot' speech:

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2007/06/quiet-riot-obamas-malaise.html

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a "quiet riot" among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago. 

The first-term Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

"This administration was colorblind in its incompetence," Obama said at a conference of black clergy, "but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane.
"All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see," he said.
Obama's criticism of Bush prompted ovation after ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University's Convocation Center, particularly when he denounced the Iraq war and noted that he had opposed it from the outset.
Repeatedly, he referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured in several days of riots in the city's black neighborhoods.
"Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better."
He argued that once a hurricane hits or a jury renders a not guilty verdict, "the frustration is there for all to see."

Yesterday, a video of Candidate Obama's complete and unexpurgated teaching moment became public through Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller:



This is Barack Obama - community activist, autobiographer and President of the United States.  He is the same man today, as he was in 2007, 2004 and 1995.  His world-view fully formed by Planned Parenthood, Frank Marshall Davis , Andy Stern, Derrick Bell , James Cone, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and prepared for public consumption by Marilyn Katz. Nothing Shocking, here, as the White House explained to the release of the newly discovered video..

Our media, so wanted an icon of diverse blood and skin tone, who could race bait with the same silky ease as Henry Louis Gates and demand a beer summit teaching moment whenever things went south.

America made Barack Obama President of the United States. He has not changed a bit, nor will he.  His cover is blown a bit, but certainly no where near enough.  The media that did not create Brand Obama certainly buys it and sells it.

This video will not matter much, as the Hampton University speech in 2007 had no effect at all in the 2008 election.  If it racist to present the speech in full, that is what Barack Obama, community activist, lawyer, Illinois back-bencher, US Senator, candidate for and President of the United States has demanded that it always be so.  Barack Obama has gotten everything he has demanded up to this election. It will be interesting to see if things continue for him no matter how it affects America.




http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/02/obama-speech-jeremiah-wright-new-orleans/3/

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3246610

Rick Kogan, a Real Newsman, Talks Up Danny Goldring, a Real Actor\

                                                                                              

Chicagoans have a nose for BS, that somehow gets all plugged up when they enter the polling booth on election day.  Almost any day other than election day the old collective snot-locker works just fine.

That is due to the fact that Chicagoans were blessed with real newsmen for so long.  One could pick up one of any of the many news dailies and get the straight dope on what was going on -unvarnished, unparsed, nuance and agenda free reporting.

Like Chicago home-grown root beer, potato chips, ice cream and job security, accurate and BS free reporting is limited to a very few sources - The Tribune offers John Kass, Rick Kogan, Phil Rosenthal and Dennis Byrne on the opinion and information beat - these gents are the real deal with leather on the pavement experience reporting the news. The Sun tImes has only Steve Huntley and Mark Brown, but is blessed with great reporters like Natasha Korecki, Maureen O'Donnell, Steve Metsch, Tim Novak and Chris Fusco. The great Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Mark Konkol has moved on.

Rick Kogan is a great read and an even better listen - the man has pipes.  Rick Kogan has the sexiest voice on radio.  The only other voice sexier on the planet in my experience belonged to Barb Stegmiller.  We tended bar at the old Reilly's Daughter in Oak Lawn before and during the Jimmy Carter Administration. Barb and I are contemporaries and moved along the same strands in the south side network - she is a daughter of St. Tommy More Parish, Queen of Peace High School and an alumna of ISU.  Barb has a voice that Lauren Bacall would have murdered an orphanage full of toddlers to possess.  Reilly's Daughter owner Boz O'Brien made an offer to Barb on behalf of male staff of several hundred dollars a month to call each of us periodically at 2,3, or 4 AM.  " Hi . . .Pat, this is Barb . . .did I wake you? "  Not to worry!!!!!!!!

Rick Kogan does exactly the same magic on female listeners and the odd gent to bats for the other side of the plate, every Sunday Morning on WGN and now on WBEZ.  The deep, husky basso profundo words of welcome that links listeners to guests comes through the wires like a Wurlitzer Church Organ in Cologne Cathedral with E. Power Biggs hitting the keys.

More than Rick's great voice, his honest heart and head presents news of people with exacting detail to accuracy.

Rick Kogan's latest presentation is that of Chicago actor Danny Goldring - a guy with the Ashkenzim Irish mug - that combination of Celt & Viking Redheaded pallor that seems to charm and threaten simultaneously, unlike the more Sephardic Micks like me.  Mr. Goldring is just one of the many great Chicago actors in the cast of "Boss" - Kelsey Grammer's brilliant mirror of Chicago politics.  Kelsey Grammer has collected many of the best from Chicago stage Tony Mockus, Francis Guinan, Amy Morton and my personal favorite in the entire series -James Vincent Meredith as Alderman Ross.

Danny Goldring like most of the Chicago based and born cast has that familiar presence - we know this guy.



There is no BS to his character.  He is a Chicagoan.  Mr. Goldring plays the boyhood pal to Grammer's Mayor Tom Kane, former CPD homicide dick, conscience and saloon owner Ryan Kavanaugh. Mayor Kane came up through Streets and Sanitation and out of Bridgeport; He has gone away from what he was to the powerful monster that he has become.  Goldring's Kavanaugh keeps him tethered to the roots.

Rick Kogan goes to the roots - a barbershop -to present this authentic and talented actor -

Look at that face in the photo and try to tell me that is not a great neighborhood face. Aging handsomely and full of life, it is the face of actor Danny Goldring — even the name is neighborhood perfect, Danny — sitting in the barbershop that he has visited with regularity for the last 20 years.
The guys, barbers and customers, at Alfredo's, at 833 N. State St., greeted the actor warmly last Saturday morning. Stories were swapped, a few wicked but well-meaning wisecracks filled the air, and fading photos of customers and barbers past lined the walls.
"I love this place," says Goldring. "It's old school. A lot of characters."

Boss presents an authentic portrait of Chicago politics - it is pure prose, tough quotidian, smelly, nasty and broad shouldered.  Grudges are the grease of our government.  Politics is the sport of mooches and career of geniuses. These days, Chicago politics is characterized by milquetoasts with power and feebs with cover:  Could a ninny like Pat Quinn have been governor twenty years ago?  Could a suburban grifter and name-dropper ever have gotten into the elevator to the Fifth Floor at City Hall, before Richie Daley sold off every asset and authentic apparatus in city government? I think not.

Chicagoans like authentic for the most part.  That is why Ed Burke and Mike Madigan manage to do some good for people. while the milquetoasts gab on Chicago Tonight.

Kelsey Grammer has done more for political science than Thundering Dick Simpson is allowed to do.

We know BS and genuine PS when we see it.

Actors and newsmen men like Goldring and Kogan keep Chicago's nasal passages clear.

Fr. Bob Barron takes on the Cosmic Impiety of Our Times

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the television pioneer holy man, wit, historian and priest, had it made - he spoke to very open ears and attentive minds.  For decades Bishop Sheen was welcomed into the homes of not only American Catholics on the tube ( Catholic Hour, Life is Worth Living and Fulton Sheen Program), but captured the hearts and minds of other Christians and Jews as well.  One of his major topics was the universal fight against Communism.  Like Satan, Communism managed to fool people that it never existed.  Families who lost sons at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, the Chosin Reservoir and Pork Chop Hill in Korea, gradually became comfortable with Reds.

Here is a program from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Program (1961-1968)  from 1968 -  on this taping the Bishop lays the economic, political, psychological and religious advantage of communist keeping non-Marxist nations at war: He nails it at 3:01

Joe Stalin croaked and avuncularly cartoonish shoe thumpers took his place. Americans no longer worried about Reds in academia, the State Department, or organized labor, because, like Joe Stalin, Senator Joe McCarthy croked.  However, Bishop Sheen continued to offer sermons warning against Communism and the devil's co-equal until advertisers to his national television program was limited to MagicKist carpet cleaning and American Catholics, Jews, and Christians became more interested in Laugh In and The Smothers Brothers and the return of Pete Seeger and his Red Banjo from America's basement. How dangerous could a skinny old geezer with a banjo strapped on be to anyone?

Like the Devil, Communism was no biggie.  The very same mindset of Aw-Shucks American hospitality and fair-play bumped science up in place of religious worship.

Now, decades after Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's return to Christ another witty and scholarly priest has stepped onto the American scene -Chicago's own Father Bob Barron, rector of St. Mary of Lake University in Mundelein, IL. Unlike, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Father Barron plays to a very hostile audience.

Like Bishop Sheen, Father Bob Barron has used the communications media (television, radio, print and the web) to engage the Devil and all of his works.  One of the best tools of evil is science.  Science has a huge altar and an enormous pulpit, as well as very talented and very bigoted voices shouting down people of faith who are no less schooled in the arcana of science, yet retain humbled before the author of the cosmos - God.

In the 19th Century, faith was eliminated from the discussion via the usual suspects - Hegel, Dewey and Marx.  Curricula K-20 offers no consideration of thought ( philosophy, science, history or literature) that does not consider culture except through the lens of Hegel, Dewey, or Marx.  American literature in high school text books practically dominates Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Hawthorne, Garrison over any other consideration in order to valorize the subsequent identity-politics light weights who string out the canon.   In philosophy of education future teachers of American children receive an eye-dropper of Plato's thin broth redacted of course and feast upon Rousseau, Fichte, Mann, Dewey and now, comically sad but true, William Ayers.

As for science, there is no search for truth, only solutions to problems.  You can go to the moon, but you can not recall why we went there . . .to beat the Commies, Remember?  Commies are not a problem they are our bankers; therefore, cancel NASA shuttle flights.  We are tickled to death that we are getting great pictures from Mars, but why are we there?  What's the plan, there Hawking and Dawkins?


Father Barron chats with a priest scientist Father George Coyne:



Man built cathedrals that attempted to match to awe and majesty of God's love of man.  Man illuminated and preserved the works of Aristotle, Plotinus, Heraclitus, Empedocles and the plays of Aristophanes in beehive stone cells of monasteries far from the reach of savages in order to justify God's ways to Man. That is called piety.  The opposite of piety is pride and pride on steroids is hubris. Hubris is what the Greeks worried about - if man forgets God, Man is screwed.  We like to forget that.   We need Fulton J. Sheens and Bob Barrons.

In my opinion, Father Barron has a tougher row to hoe.  Bishop Sheen's foes, Satan and the Soviets, were much more understood by people during the American Golden Age ( 1945-1972).  I mark the end of WWII and Nixon's Trip to China and the very next year Nixon cleared the way for Roe v. Wade and the American Genocide*.   Once Tricky Dick ate egg-rolls with Mao and chatted realpolitik with Chou En Lai, Americans put on their eatin' pants too, burped away bad thoughts and watched the Tube and nodded that abortion was health care.

Father Barron offers a genuine consideration of modern hubris, or what Bertrand Russell called cosmic impiety, in an article from RealClear Politics.  Here is a salient passage:

 Though the sciences might be able to explain the chemical make-up of pages and ink, they will never be able to reveal the meaning of a book; and though they might make sense of the biology of the human body, they will never tell us why a human act is moral or immoral; and though they might disclose the cellular structure of oil and canvas, they will never determine why a painting is beautiful.And this is not because "science" is for the moment insufficiently developed, it is because the scientific method cannot, even in principle, explore such matters, which belong to a qualitatively different category of being than the proper subject matter of the sciences. The claim that "science" could ever provide a total understanding of reality as a whole overlooks the rather glaring fact that meaning, truth, beauty, morality, purpose, etc., are all ingredients in "the universe."
But as is usually the case with scientistic speculation, Carroll's thought is designed, above all, to eliminate God as a subject of serious intellectual discourse. The first and most fundamental problem is that, like Hawking, Dawkins and Dennett, Carroll doesn't seem to know what Biblical people mean by "God." With the advance of the modern physical sciences, he asserts, there remains less and less room for God to operate, and hence less and less need to appeal to him as an explanatory cause. This is a contemporary reiteration of Pierre-Simon Laplace's rejoinder when the Emperor Napoleon asked the famous astronomer how God fit into his mechanistic system: "I have no need of that hypothesis."
But God, as the classical Catholic intellectual tradition understands him, is not one cause, however great, among many; not one more item within the universe jockeying for position with other competing causes. Rather, God is, as Thomas Aquinas characterized him, ipsum esse, or the sheer act of to-be itself -- that power in and through which the universe in its totality exists. Once we grasp this, we see that no advance of the physical sciences could ever "eliminate" God or show that he is no longer required as an explaining cause, for the sciences can only explore objects and events within the finite cosmos.
To demonstrate the relationship between God and the universe more clearly, it would be worthwhile to explore the most fundamental argument for God's existence, namely the argument from contingency. You and I are contingent (dependent) in our being in the measure that we eat and drink, breathe, and had parents; a tree is contingent inasmuch as its being is derived from seed, sun, soil, water, etc.; the solar system is contingent because it depends upon gravity and events in the wider galaxy. To account for a contingent reality, by definition we have to appeal to an extrinsic cause. But if that cause is itself contingent, we have to proceed further. This process of appealing to contingent causes in order to explain a contingent effect cannot go on indefinitely, for then the effect is never adequately explained. 
Hence, we must finally come to some reality that is not contingent on anything else, some ground of being whose very nature is to-be. This is precisely what Catholic theology means by "God." Therefore, God is not one fussy cause within or alongside the universe; instead, he is the reason why there is a universe at all, why there is, as the famous formula has it, "something rather than nothing." To ask the sophomoric question, "Well, what caused God?" is simply to show that the poser of the question has not grasped the nettle of the argument.

No, Father, we have settled all that.  Science says "toss up those big-ass wind-turbines (NIMBY Rules apply of course) and all is well."  Go to Mars!  "Why?"  Because, there was water there billions and billions and billions of years ago! " And?"  There was water there billions and billions and billions of years ago. 

Keep at them, Father!

REV. ROBERT BARRON, M.A. (Phil), S.T.D., .

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Professor of Faith and Culture

M.A., Catholic University of America; S.T.B., M.Div., S.T.L., University of St. Mary of the Lake; S.T.D., Institut Catholique de Paris. Former Associate Pastor at St. Paul of the Cross Parish. A member of the Catholic Theology Society of America, G.K. Chesterton Society, Paul Tillich Society. Author of The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path, Creation as Discipleship, A Study of the DePotentia of Thomas Aquinas in Light of the Dogmatik of Paul Tillich, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation, Heaven in Stone and Glass and Bridging the Great Divide and The Word on Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ and of the Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism. Articles on theology and the spiritual life have appeared in numerous journals.

*Planned Parenthood continues  to get one third( $ 345 Million dollars) of its funding to murder children from the Federal Government.
Forget Mars.  We got serious business here.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/622643main_FY%2013%20Budget%20Presentation.pdf

This is 'What is On,' When My Love Asks, " What Are You Thinking Right Now?"

Make sense?

Women are from Venus and Men are . . . . . . I'm sorry, what were you asking?  Oh, we are very different.  The mind wanders, though purpose allows us to somehow unplug the sink, get that raise, change the tires, knock out that Jap machine gun nest on Hill 262 . . .sorry.

I am always asked by the elegant, graceful and thoughtful woman I love, " What is on your mind, right now?" Nothing lurid, My dear.

Women really, really, really want to know.  I try and and try to explain, "not much."

Usually it is stuff I need to do.  Women think deep, caring and beautiful thoughts.  Men?



Ladies, This is what is going on when we have that far-away look.  It is not, "how can I make this a better world, or ' Was I unkind to interrupt her thoughts with a suggestion that I actually followed what the hell she was saying?"

Nope.  Here's what's on the brain screen, Girls. This one gets replayed in my old brain pan a lot!

Power - Hegel, Fichte, Horace Mann, Compulsory Education -The Roots of Our Nanny and Ninny American Society

“Education should provide the means to destroy free will”.  -Fichte

I

Fichte and the powerful men (Emerson, Horace Mann and John Dewey) who have inherited his ideals, when they see children, think: 'Here is material that I can manipulate'... All this, to any person with natural affection for the young, is horrible; just as we teach children to avoid being destroyed by motor cars if they can, so we should teach them to avoid being destroyed by cruel fanatics... This is the task of a liberal education: to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendour which some few have shown that it can achieve (Russell 1938:251 - parenthetical my own).

Yesterday, a Cook County judge dismissed any and all charges against the Occupy/NATO protesters because the City of Chicago did not arrest Obama Victory Party celebrators in 2008.

If that makes perfect sense to you, then you fully understand the nature of the American Progressive Power and Education Collective.  There is no room for rugged individuals like cops in this America, this Illinois, Cook County and City of Chicago.  

The cops were praised universally in May when there was clear and present danger of great violence and mayhem resulting from the organized and orchestrated voices, fists, feet, buttocks, beer and pop bottles of the American Left starring Occupy, Anarchists International and the anti-NATO gangs.

Chicago Police under Superintendent Garry McCarthy were masterful routing the goofs and ninnies.. It is axiomatic that the American public praise not soldiers, cops, firemen and medics too long.

As in the case of the American National Memory following 9/11/01,  unified pride and determination must be extinguished in place of greater goals, agendas and satisfying outcomes - a return to the Nanny and Ninny State*
.
The Nanny State makes sure that American Individualism is shackled by governmentally legislated mandates limiting the free exercise of conscience -Gay Marriage is a natural and civil right, Abortion is Health Care, Sugar, fat and salt and is poison, obesity can be cured by law, the Middle Class must disappear, while believing that it is being strengthened, and opportunity can only come from the Federal Government.

The Ninny State complies to everything that comes from the Nanny State.

Like drunks and degenerate gamblers, we hold these truths to be self-evident, because we learned them in schools -public schools and practiced what was preached over many decades without ever challenging the roots of power itself.

Power is what it is all about.  The power to turn Labor into SEIU was exercised patiently and incrementally.  The power to eliminate individualism and piety from the culture.  America must transcend its identity and become a global component in a New World Order.

Great people must be diminished and obscured and replaced by a poster image.

 I have never met a great person, powerful, influential, celebrated and publicly recognized for achievement, who was not a very humble, grateful, giving person.   I met met many, far too many, public persons who grabbed or were handed authority, influence and celebrity, who were cowardly bullies, frauds, grifters, users and sneaks.  While they may wield power, far too long in most cases, they never do anything for anyone or anything that does not add to their personal and public agenda. For them it is all about power.

Some of the worst bullies, frauds, grifters, users and sneaks choose teaching as a path to power.    Whether it is a gym coach who flirts and eventually seduces and impregnates a cheerleader, a social science teacher who uses the essays of her students to publish her book on adolescent sexual awakenings and shares none of the royalties or credit with her 'ghost-writers,'   the unprepared lazy clown who gives silent reading periods seven preps a day,  five days a week, while taking classes for his Type-75 Certification from Big Community Mail or Phone It In University,  education, like politics, can be a very warm and welcoming home for the useless, lazy and mean. Private and Catholic schools have the luxury of getting rid of such mopes and the best of them do and quickly.

Power differs from authority.   I can fire up a boiler in the winter but I am not the best person to do so.  The custodian, or the school stationary engineer.  I 'pigeon-see-makee-workee' buttons and pumps and water tubes, it will go on, but if things go south . . .hold the  phone, Richard. In short, I am no authority. Though I am no proficient, let alone authority on boiler maintenance and operations, I was taught simple tasks necessary for a satisfying outcome.  I went to Catholic schools. My public school counterpart would have nothing to do with any task out of his  step, level and license.  Catholic educators multi-task - always have and always will. . .until outlawed by Federal Mandate.

I learned that if something needs to be done, even without full authority or license I am obligated to fire the the damn things up!  If I see an unconscious man on the sidewalk, I may not pass him by. Rather, I must apply the rudimentary CPR tasks and face the all too real possibility of having my ass sued by the person I helped.  It's that Catholic thing.  I coached, mentored, supervised and taught in Catholic schools and still do. 

I am very well schooled in the canons of British, American and some World Literatures. My areas of interest are not limited to my tastes.  I love Thackeray, admire Dickens, worship Milton and  Pope and delight in Shakespeare.  I prefer neo-classical, Augustan poetry over the much more popular Romantics; Jane Bronte over Jane Austin; Montaigne before Bacon always with essays; Seamus Heaney & Wallace Stevens top Yeats, Frost, T.S. and Chesterton is more than equal to GB Shaw.  That stuff can not unplug a sewer line, nor can it bend electrical pipe.

My authority lies solely in my study and training as a teacher.  That authority did not include offering a National Honor Society insurance policy along with the syllabus for AP English Literature.  I did not give "extra credit" and neither would set of Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tires satisfy the semester essay requirements; nor, did it include the license to organize students as an agenda collective.

The idea  that one should develop as woman or man is repellent to schools of education, especially American education. The concept of Free Will lies at the core of Catholic teaching and task of each person is to recognize obligation to family, faith and nation within the individual's cosmic duty to the Creator.  Catholic education was established in America in Baltimore during the 1850's in reaction to evangelizing of citizens under the Hegelian Prussian models advocated by the likes of  Horace Mann a Unitarian minister.  Horace Mann visited Prussia in 1843 and returned with doctrine of universal compulsory education -

It was Mann and his like-minded comrades in the Massachusetts elite, who imagined education as a tool of an emerging republic to develop its human resources and direct that development. They saw themselves as the best and the brightest, so who better than they to say what education should be for everyone else.

Thus the advent of the Nanny State and Ninny State that America has become.  Students are compelled to track into niche and absorb all manner of nonsense that has absolutely nothing to do with " the examined life."

Progressive icon Emma Goldman railed against the individual -rugged and otherwise - in favor of collectivism and Americans eat this up!

'rugged individualism'... is only a masked attempt to repress and defeat the individual and his individuality. So-called Individualism is the social and economic laissez-faire

Individualism during the harsh Medieval times turned hostelers into Archbishops, like Thomas Becket, through the scholastic gradus.


Beggers can't be kings, but under the American collectivist education, buggers can be Dads. Power and compulsory education make it so.  Social engineering comes through schools.  As always, those born to the purple have education suited to their rank and privilege.


Where gentleman farmers and leading burghers attended the American but less feudal incubators of Groton, Phillips-Andover, Trinity & Harvard and Yale elite private schools, the rustics and immigrant  huddled masses were compelled to attend government schools founded by  Unitarian established doctrines and systems to mold workers, clerks and soldiers and their places in the Unitarian scheme.  The wealthy went to the elite schools:

Tier one would be our elite private prep schools and elite private (and top public) universities that, though they are not completely limited to our society’s social elite, are still generally bastions of the most privileged in our country, including many of our top political leadership. Lefty Parent

 These private educational institutions, colloquially known as "prep schools" in the United States, can be boarding or day schools, affiliated with a particular faith or completely secular. At the high end of the spectrum, they're known for ultra-competitive admissions, high tuition and top-notch facilities. Their aim is to provide students with education that funnels them into the very best universities.. . . These institutions all offer high-caliber instruction and uniquely valuable experiences to their students. But in a world where education is so competitive and expensive, and where the name of your high school can open doors for life, it's worth measuring the best of the best. Forbes

* Tier two would be the best of our public K-12 schools, located mostly in more prosperous neighborhoods, which have the resources to assist the most academically inclined of the children of the middle class to put them on the programmed path to get their degrees and then get good jobs as doctors and lawyers and other “knowledge workers”, our contemporary “apparatchiks”. Lefty Parent

These schools are the ones like a New Trier in Winnetka - home to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and funded by a wildly affluent. They are no pay prep schools. Likewise, CPS has created Magnet Schools which operate in most exclusive manner with regard to acceptance, yet remain linked by taxes to the universal compulsory model despite all of bells and whistles found in Naperville, Winnetka and Lake Forest public schools.

Then, of course the compelled helots and huddled masses of urban and rural America - real Mike Klonsky and Bill Ayers Annenberg Challenged children are warehoused, as they always have been in the Horace Mann, John Dewey Worker Beehives of Tier Three Schools.

* Tier three would be the rest of our public schools, mainly in the inner cities and poor rural areas, generally under resourced and failing (by design as it is argued by some). Though there are the occasional exceptions of schools or individual students that rise above these circumstances into the second tier, which perpetuate the myth that anyone can succeed, many of our youth in these schools have the odds of success heavily stacked against them. From these ranks many of our lower-paid worker-bees come, including many of the enlisted soldiers in our volunteer army. Lefty Parent

The Tier Three schools are the horrific barns parents of limited income must send their children. There they are housed until such time as they may reap the benefits doled to them.  The only chance these children have of becoming rugged individuals who contribute while they save what they earn is catholic schools.  I group all denominations under this small c rubric.  Roman Catholic schools reject the Horace Mann compulsory  second and third tier models.  Catholic schools like their medieval rooted schools teach free will, humility, commitment to  God and the scholastic gradus* - One must move up the steps once one has mastered the skills and the understanding of each level of progress and proficiency.  Other Christian Faiths adopted the Catholic system of education -parochial school.

In our Nanny & Ninny State, rugged individuals need not apply until they take the required univeral and compulsory anti-individual, racist, sugar eating, carbon foot-printing, pan-homophobia, breeder happy counsel and licensing.


N.B. Much of what sparked my rather gabby post above was sparked by a posting from a blog entitled Lefty Parent which I link below. Thanks, Lefty!

*The Trivium consisted of:

• Grammar

• Rhetoric

• Logic

The Quadrivium consisted of:

• Arithmetic -- Number in itself

• Geometry -- Number in space

• Music, Harmonics, or Tuning Theory -- Number in time

• Astronomy or Cosmology -- Number in space and time

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-grant-park-arrests-judge-0928-20120928,0,3817020.story
http://www.leftyparent.com/blog/2011/10/15/napoleon-prussia-the-u-s-education-system/

Dillon Hoey- A Catholic Education is a Lifestyle

It has been my honor to meet and get to know hundreds of Leo Men. At the top left of this page from the Leo Alumni Website is one of the greatest - J. Dillon Hoey.   Mr. Hoey went home to Christ in April of 2003.  I accompanied Leo ,teacher,  coach, President-CEO and Father Figure Bob Foster to St. Michael's Catholic Church in Old Town for the funeral Mass.  Bob Foster was a year older than Dillon Hoey and had been a team mate on 1956 City Championship Team coached by the legendary Jimmy Arneberg.

Dillon Hoey was a very close friend of my cousin Eddie Burke.  Eddie played for the Mendel Monarchs against his buddy and some of scariest human beings in Catholic League football:  Leo Men Tom Winecki, Don Flynn, Eddie Ryan, Pony Cavanaugh, Rich Boyle, Bob Swast and of course Bob Foster.  Eddie went to Notre Dame and Dillon went to Yale but they kept in touch all through college.

My cousin went on to play with the Houston Oilers and became an attorney in Houston after his pro career. Dillon Hoey became a famous labor lawyer and workers compensation advocate.  At Yale he roomed with future Vice President Dick Cheney and like his long friendship with Ed Burke kept in close touch throughout his life.  Ed Burke continues to  send in money to help Leo kids and their families in memory of J. Dillon Hoey, Leo 1959.

I mention all of this because last night Leo President Dan McGrath, football coach and Dean Mike Holmes and me attended a high school recruitment night at J. Dillon Hoey's parish and alma mater St. Barnabas School in Beverly. We were joining the many Catholic high schools in presenting our case to 7th and grade students looking to their futures.  

One young man who stopped by our table  and filled out a card was the grandson of Dillon Hoey.  His grandfather forged the competitive nature that made him a highly successful and very giving man.  My cousin Eddie Burke and his pal Dillon Hoey faced one another over the scrimmage line and represented what is best in Catholic schools on the broken beer bottles, ciders and rocks of the old Shewbridge Field which was the home of the Leo Lions as well as the wonderfully maintained Eckersoll Stadium and the icon St. Rita Stadium, notable for the sewer manhole handicap in its south end-zone.

Catholic schools are God centered places of learning. Fierce competition for places on teams, as well as a desk in a classroom are part and parcel of this cradle of virtue.  Catholic high schools are all fundamentally the same,but distinct in spirit and traditions.  The is cost in time talent and treasure.  Leo welcomes anyone who wants to succeed, base his life on the gospel, dedicate himself to others and give back more than he receives.  It ain't pretty, neat, or easy; neither is life.

J. Dillon Hoey was the son of a Chicago cop.  He put his heart and hands into the work all through his high school experience, knowing full well that goals are not the end of the story. Once goal is met, a Catholic educated young man should ask, " Okay, what do you want me to do now?"

It would be great to see Dillon Hoey's grandson choose Leo.  This school would serve him as much as it did his grandfather.  However, whatever Catholic school the young man decides up will be an equally great choice. A Chicago public school is out of the question, because there is only a "there" there. A Catholic education is lifestyle.

God Bless the young man and his wonderful grandfather.  Read the tribute from Dillon Hoey's law firm, especially the wonderful quote fro St. Francis of Assisi.

Dillon Hoey - Leo 1958 wearing # 98

J. Dillon Hoey at Yale

Remembering a Life of Giving

J. Dillon Hoey
1941-2003

---

Our firm is deeply saddened by the loss of our wonderful friend, J. Dillon Hoey. Dillon passed away on Sunday, April 27, 2003, from pancreatic cancer.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dillon’s wife Mary Ann, and other family members. The funeral mass was held at St. Michael’s Church, 1633 North Cleveland Street, Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday, May 1. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be sent to The Alzheimer's Association.

Dillon will be greatly missed by the 35 families of Hoey & Farina, and by so many more in the railroad and legal communities. We want to thank everyone who has sent their sympathies. We have passed these condolences along to Dillon’s wife and family.

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Dillon was the son of a Chicago policeman and the grandson of a railroad worker who was fatally injured on the job. With an entire career representing injured workers, Dillon’s professional life manifested the personal values that grew from his strong south side roots.

Dillon grew up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. He attended Leo High School, where he was part of the legendary football squad that won the city championship. Later, at Yale University, Dillon was on the undefeated 1959 freshman football team with Dick Cheney, the current vice president of the United States. After Yale, Dillon returned to Chicago where he attended DePaul University’s College of Law.

Twenty five years ago, Dillon started his own firm. He was appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the United Transportation Union in 1991, and appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the Transportation Communications Union in 1998. Never one to rest on his accomplishments, Dillon continued to build the firm, which now holds seven union designations. During these years, Dillon’s leadership was instrumental in Hoey & Farina, obtaining many of the largest verdicts and settlements for railroaders and their families in the United States.

In the process of building the law firm, Dillon also expanded the definition of Designated Legal Counsel. Dillon offered more than the best legal representation to railroaders and their families. His mission -- the firm’s mission -- was simple -- inform railroaders of their unique rights under the law. The fruit of his efforts is an array of resources; a collection of books, videos, email and print newsletters, websites and seminars that are available for free to railroaders and their families. Dillon raised the bar for what it means to serve as Designated Legal Counsel, and the union membership is the better for it. We know that this is exactly what Dillon envisioned and what he delivered.

Dillon's long list of professional associations include the Academy of Railroad Labor Attorneys, American Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association. Dillon’s involvement in the community was equally impressive. Dillon served on the executive board of Leo High School, where he was an active contributor to the school and a sponsor of Leo students. Dillon also served as chairman of the Art Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago, a leading civic and community organization. We have highlighted only a few of Dillon’s many community and educational involvements over the years.

St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, “When you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage." Dillon left us on Sunday, April 27, 2003, and it is certain that he left with a wonderful heart filled by a lifetime of giving to others.

Hoey & Farina pledges to continue the firm and the mission that Dillon built as a tribute to his life. We will continue to honor and celebrate his life in our work, in our hearts and in our prayers.

http://www.leohsalumniassoc.com/images1959/seniors_1959/pages/seniors%20HJ_jpg.htm

http://www.hoeyfarina.com/railroadhfdillonhoey