My Neighbor is Home with Christ- Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.
Saint Patrick

 No man lived for Christ like Francis Cardinal George, O.M. I., Archbishop of Chicago.  I witnessed this simple, but tough, priest.

Cardinal George had a powerful intellect, but never allowed his gifts to smother questions, doubts, or take advantage of the follies of other people.  He was not a big shot and therefore never became a media darling.

He was tasked by our Church to lead a huge and very combative Archdiocese that had lost a favorite shepherd in Cardinal Bernardin.  Upon assuming his duties, Cardinal George knew that he had a tough act to follow and did not presume Brotherhood with us.  Rather, he introduced himself as Our Neighbor.

My brother and sister know every grain of dirt beneath my fingernails, every weakness and every gap in my armor, because they have lived with me and not near me.  My neighbor knows of me and will only get close enough to me as I will allow.  My neighbor does not presume to cross the property line without an invite.

I invited the most powerful American Bishop to be my brother and he was not too busy, too big, too disinterested to take up my call.

In fact, Cardinal George called me.

Shortly after he, Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, was inducted into the College of Cardinals, a friend was unceremoniously and very publicly removed from her role as Principal of a Catholic Girls High School, where she has raised enrollment, student and faculty morale, spiked fund-raisisng and elevated the status of that school in the public eye.

The religious order operating that school decided to take another direction.   Bob Foster, then President of Leo High School, hates bullies and injustice and asked me to write a couple of letters to the editor for the Daily Southtown.  I did.

In the letters, I asked Cardinal George to look into the matter.  Cardinal George was in Washington D. C. leading the American Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The letters appeared through the week.  On Monday, I was told that I was to be fired.  Bob Foster lit into the powers-that-be in the bureaucratic branches of the Chicago Archdiocese - on the phone and with his characteristic force and rhetoric.

The Archdiocese is a Corporation - a Public Person - and that person's feelings were hurt by the Director of Development for Leo High School.  Leo High School is a school of Archdiocese of Chicago. Most people assume that Leo is independent of the Archdiocese, like St. Rita, Fenwick, Brother Rice, or St. Lawrence. The fact is Cardinal Mundelein ordered the building of Leo.  Irish Christian Brothers never sponsored Leo, only operated it and were long gone.

From the moment, the Christian Brothers bailed out of any responsibility for Leo, Bob Foster and the Leo Alumni paid down the debts, raised tuition, secured the grants and initiated the on-going campus expansion and all without subsidy from the Archdiocese. Therefore, Bob Foster would not allow "policy," a changeling tool for the unimaginative, to dictate on a technicality.

Lawyers, crumbs and money, to paraphrase a rock and roll tune had other ideas.

My youngest was in third grade at St. Cajetan's and had come home with the flu. As a single Dad, I remained home with her keeping the possibility of losing my job to myself.

At around, six o'clock in evening I got a call on my cell phone.
 " Hello, is this Pat Hickey?"

" Yes, It is. . . ?"

" This is Cardinal George."

I though for a moment. It was Bill Gainer*, who had pulled that gag on me before, " Up Your's Eminence!"

There was genuine laughter on the other line, " No, really, Pat.  This Cardinal George.  I understand that I fired you."

" Gainer.. . ."

" Relax, it is the genuine article, Pat.  Now tell me why I fired you. This is the first I have heard of it. It's something about some letters you wrote to the papers?  I have this note, but I have not even heard about the firing of the Principal.  Fill me in, please."

I explained the chain of events and of my request that the Ordinary -Archbishop of Chicago - look into the capricious removal of a great Catholic woman as principal of girl's high school within the Archdiocese.

The Cardinal laughed and said, " Easy for you to say.  The religious order as a corporation can fire any employee.  It is not right, or just but certainly is legal. Look, I'll go over there and talk to the parents, staff and people representing that Order. Why are you home, by the way. Did Bob Foster suspend you? That does not sound like the man I know! Ha, ha, ha,. . ."

Again the genuine humor from a man who did not need to call an employee about a matter that put him in the middle of a controversy of another's doing.  Yet, here he was.

" No, Your Eminence, I am taking care of my little girl who is down with the Flu."

" Poor baby. Is she school age?"

" She goes to St. Cajetan's."

" Would like me to speak with her?"

I took the phone to Clare and she and the Archbishop of Chicago chatted about school her up-coming First Holy Communion and Hannah Montana from one end of phone anyway. The Cardinal gave Clare a blessing for good health and grace.

" Pat. You have your job.  I did not fire you.  In any bureaucracy people will say 'The Cardinal says, this and Cardinal says that and all without asking Francis George what he thinks.  They mean well."

We chatted some more and I learned that his father belonged to Local 399.  Like my father and his father before him, Francis Cardinal George's Dad was a stationary engineer.

We shared some more laughs about life in the Chicago Archdiocese.  I continue to work at Leo.

Cardinal George worked for Leo.  He counseled five students who had very tough lives.  He helped us raise money for new buses and blessed those buses.  Francis Cardinal George was made a Leo Man in 2011 and inducted into this school's Hall of Fame in 2014.

He was my neighbor - a great neighbor.

Cardinal George went home to Christ on Friday, April 17th.

* Bill Gainer is a guy from Roseland. Like Cardinal George, Bill does not know the first thing about being a "big shot."

Catholics Bury the Indigent Fetus: The Chicago Tribune Buries the Evil that is Abortion

Francis Cardinal Ceorge initiated the practice of taking the bodies of the unclaimed poor (fetuses and adults) off of the hands of Cook County in 2012.  The Chicago Tribune decided that needed no mention in its article about the burial of 62 unclaimed aborted children, in order to make a political propaganda piece. 

Instead, John Daley's presence at the recent ceremony is used.

Cook County Commissioner John Daley is a wonderful man.  Of the Daley Boys, he is the kindest and most thoughtful, in my opinion.  The other day, he joined fellow Catholics  at Mount Olivet Cemetery on the south side to bury the aborted children of poor people - indigent fetuses.

This practice begun by Francis Cardinal George, who is not mentioned in the article, is a good thing.  Not even Planned Parenthood could scream, as is their wont, about religion interfering in choice.

However, a good deed can not go un-propagandized in Chicago and the Chicago Tribune immediately rolled over for  rub of its tummy, by Planned Parenthood Illinois, Progressives and Abortion Complicit Politicians.

The Illinois Department of Human Services also has provided funding to the county over the years for burials of unclaimed remains of people who were public aid recipients or would have been eligible for public aid, Shuftan said.

However, as previously reported in the Tribune, Gov. Bruce Rauner recently announced cuts to state payments for indigent funerals.

Explain to me - if the Archdiocese of Chicago has made a practice of burying the remains of children aborted with the help of Illinois legislation for years, why is it important to mention that 'cuts ti state payment fro indigent funerals' is news and not propaganda?

 The Catholic land to bury the aborted children might run out, we are told.  But Catholic Cemeteries are private, you see, and Catholics are paying for that space to burying children aborted due to State of Illinois sponsored homicide.

It was very decent of John Daley to attend this service. He is a decent guy. Cardinal George deserves some recognition by the Chicago Tribune for this mitzvah, but this is the Chicago Tribune -a vassal of Planned Parenthood 24/7.

End abortion; no fetus to bury.

So I am not The Lone Free Ranger

"We refuse to deprive our children of critical opportunities to develop responsibility and independence, and have no intention of fundamentally changing our parenting to accommodate this kind of paranoia and bullying," Danielle Meitiv wrote.

Heard about the couple who let their kids run free have you?  They are taking some heat from breeders and squares.

I was a free range parent long before Daniell Meitiv. They are very caring. I just did not shive-a-git about where and when my three children moved about and even suggested neat  urban adventures.  I love them so much that I gave them the keys to the City of Chicago.

"Dad, I took the Halsted Bus all the way to Irving Park Road and then walked through Uptown! You were right! There are so many Native Americans! They were literally lying on the street, " sang my elder female child and eldest of the three. Nora was 13 at the time and going into her freshman year at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School and she would need a full and robust immersion among real people and not just protected, pampered and button-down NorthFace BevRat Irish Catholics. I suggested a daily routine of inner-city immersions, or personal flights of challenge.  I said, "Explore! Advocate! Challenge! Be Your Bliss!"

No hand holding here.

I opened the car door at 75th & Cottage Grove and said, " Ask the folks over by the Courtesty Exchange for a conversation about Race, Honey I'll pick you up 5:30 P.M.  unless someone offers you a ride home.!" I then zoomed off to Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap for the next six hours where I sampled IPAs in their infancy and chatted up the locals. Good jukebox.

My second child, a Mannish boy of 8 back then,  was treated to a night alone in Elizabeth Conkey Woods Forest Preserve.  " Hey, buddy!  You'll thank me, later.  It is going to get a bit air-ish at sundown; so, don't get all sweaty chasing ground squirrels.  Here's a bag of cucumber sandwiches and a canteen full of Sun Tea. Hey, why the long puss?  You are  21st Century Man there are porta-potties all over the grounds.I'll get you at 9AM and let you sleep in a bit."  My son never mentioned that wonderful night out.  He never mentions anything to me.

My baby girl was two when my wife died and so I home schooled herself.  She was like that little girl Matilda. *

Free Range, Baby!

Why bother teaching your kids anything about American history, responsibility, good manners, taste in books, art and film, reverence for virtue, piety and the sanctity of each human life from womb to doom?  We are evolving.

* Fine film

Chicago Police Digest 1959 and Obama's New BFF Fidel Castro

This is a great historical document. The number of Leo Catholic High School alumni "on the Job" in 1959 is astounding. Future Superintendent James Conlisk was head of traffic. Latin, Greek and Gaelic scholar Lt. Maurice Higgins ( father of Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoonist Jack Higgins) was head of Robbery Division. Sox Owner Bill Veeck is show with what just might be Bill Kay's son Billy.

One snippet in the Chicago Police Digest for 1959 concerned the visit of Fidel Castro's son Junior to the old CPD Headquarters at 11th & State. 

"Castro's Son Visits Police Building
Fidel Castro, Jr., 10, son of the fiery
Cuban leader, was a recent visitor to
the Police Building while in Chicagofor the Pan-American Games. Accompanyinghim were Cuban Army Capt.Angel Saauedra and Fidel Jr.'s militaryacademy buddy, Cadet Nelson Asquru.Mark Thanasouras of the HomicideDetail and Crime Laboratory TechnicianJoseph De Lopez served as guidesand interpreters for the young Cubanand his party during their visit. "  - from Chicago PoliceDigest1959 (7) 



This was at a time, before the election of JFK, when Casto was considered to be as harmless as Obamcare and redefining traditional marriage.  

BTW - The Cuban Army officer escorting Fidel Jr. was the same guy who passed on classified documents to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (NY)* who managed to get the State Department to stop arming Batista and clearing the way for Castro. http://www.upi.com/…/Cuban-says-spy-helped-C…/8125291104464/

Some may recall that El Jefe brought a delegation of bearded Army fatigue clad guerrilla fighters to the United Nations, after Batista was overthrown and Fredo betrayed Michael in Godfather II.  In 1960,the Cuban delegation stayed in Harlem, the congressional district of Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, instead of among the tony 1%ers on Manhattan's east side. The Red world travellers joined Castro in Harlem and the Third World was born.  Soon Cuba would be exporting its Red Revolution to Africa, Central and South America, as well as the island nations of the Caribbean and inviting Bill Ayers, Obama's ghost-writer some say, to cut sugar cane as an apprentice University of Illinois pensioner.


Castro with Dr. Grayson Kirk - President of Columbia University -somethings never change.

Castro has not changed.  He and his brother are ruthless, blood thirsty thugs.  President Obama is making nice with Castro and Iran.  For people who read, that is bothersome.

History - the stuff we choose to ignore. . . . with help from academics, Reds and Howard Zinn.

* Do note that House of Representatives site biography for Adam Clayton Powell is totally and completly scrubbed of any reference to Cuba, Castro or Clayton Powell's part in helping Castro transfer Buban tyranny from Batista to himself. Shucks was just an 'An unapologetic activist.' Like President Obama.

Leo High Schoool Heroes: Raymond E. Jehli -Navy Cross Recipient

On April 7th, 1945 Leo Man Ray Jehli '39 flew from the deck of USS Enterprise, attacked and sank a Japanese Cruiser in the South China Sea.  From St. Francis de Paula Parish, Ray Jehli was a four year Honor Roll student at Leo played basketball and football before going to war.  Ray Jehli is credited with sinking one of the last enemy capital ships in World War II combat. President Truman awarded the Navy Cross to Ray Jehli. Ray's brother Walter '37 and Army Air Corps pilot was shot down and killed in 1944.

Walter is buried at St. Mary's on the south side.

Jehli, Raymond E.

February 12, 2004

Raymond E. Jehli, age 82, WWII Navy Pilot, recipient of the Navy Cross, beloved husband of the late Eileen Jehli, nee McGloin; loving father of Mary Virginia Flynn (Micah), Raymond "Jay" Jehli (Maureen), Patricia Heyne, Christine Jehli, Karen Jehli; dear grandfather of five grandsons and two granddaughters. Died Feb. 2, 2004 at home in Mesa, AZ. Services were held Feb. 5, 2004. Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of the Valley, 2222 S. Dobson Rd. #401 Mesa, AZ 85202

JEHLI, RAYMOND EDWARDSynopsis:
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Raymond Edward Jehli, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter Plane in Fighting-Bombing Squadron NINE (VFB-9), embarked from the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE (CV-6), on 7 April 1945, while deployed over the East China Sea. His outstanding courage and determined skill were at all times inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

What We Can Expect - 2016 Will Arrive and Depart and Hillary Clinton Will Be President

If America thinks Obama craps strawberries, I guess I am out of step. But step I do.

Obama's handlers ( he never had an original thought in his life) took Cuba off the table and gelded Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush on that issue. Cuba libre?  Nah. Cuba will be open to a few cyber-nerd bazillionaires, the auto industry and Captain Morgan, but Raul and Fidel Castro will keep all of the sugar.

A dictatorship ends and democracy begins when Chuck Todd reads something from GE and then tries to explain what is written on the note from up-stairs to Chris Matthews, Big Ed, Mika, Morning Joe and Andrea Mitchell.

That said, our own American fortunes remain tied to some pretty bad things - abortion, secularism bordering on nihilism, historical ignorance and political fascism.  Orgainized labor is merely a political app device clicked on when convenient. Journalism, which Joe Epstein paraphrased Oscar Wilde, is celebrity gossip spiced with political propaganda. Bruce Jenner's transformation certainly helps keep Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker out of the White House and will.

I suspect that America will mirror Cuba shortly and believe that it will be no different than recent mayoral election.  American voters will shrug and vote a pretty nasty person - Hillary Clinton, who is no more than Mayor Rahm Emanuel without a personal trainer.

Who will win the White House in 2016?

Let me speak up.  It will not be a Republican.  My guess; it will be Hillary Clinton.  As Chicago went last week, so shall go the nation . . .with whimper.

My proudly liberal colleague, Mike O'Neill, noted that Tammy Duckworth with beat Illinois's United States Junior Senator Marque Kirque like an old rug. I'd like in on that.

 The Illinois GOP is the template for the RNC - a party that blows off its own toes at the request of DNC.  .  Marque Kirque is the template for the GOP, just as the doughy and dopey Senator Dick Durbin is the template for Democratic Party. Both Illinois Senatorial carbon footprints are not worth the price of Oprah tickets, but both are regarded as men of gravitas in both parties.  I am sardonically amused that people with more brains, talent and moral backbone than either one of them would walk across tile square to shake hands.  I feel the same way about President Obama, whom I have not only spent but had dialog.  I found him singularly underwhelming in 1996 and more so now that he has been elected to two terms, snatched a Nobel Peace Prize and turned America into Europe in seven short years.

Bessie Warren, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley are merely stalking horses for Hillary. They are like Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti who run, distract and be rewarded post election. Hillary is Rahm Emanuel.

America has evolved.

The race is over before it starts.

"it's Something I Can't Fathom Right Now."

Another kid got him a green Masters jacket. A twenty -two year old kid matched the 1997 Masters miracle of young Tiger Woods.

Jordan Spieth handled the awe of everyone at Augusta, GA with phenomenal grace. Spieth remarked,"To have this jacket forever,it's something I can't fathom right now,"

Somethings we not supposed to fathom

• Medal of Honor Heroism
• A Woman Giving Birth
• Friends and Family
• God's Forgiveness
• That Moment When a Student 'Gets it!'

Jordan Spieth, don't fathom it; delight in it. 

Now for years to come, Spieth will join that gathering to recount for his elders and later to a younger generation how he chased down history.
How his 18-under total matched Tiger Woods' 1997 dominance for the best 72-hole score ever posted here.
How his wire-to-wire win was the first at Augusta in 39 years, since Raymond Floyd pulled off the feat in 1976.
How his 28 birdies over 72 holes set a Masters record.
Even with the stakes, the pressure, the dreams, Spieth never lost his nerve. And the big names positioned to at least test the kid's patience Sunday never created enough noise.

"Chiraq" is Demeaning to Chicago - Call it "Worrisome"

No less an expert on the use of language than Senator Dick " I Heard Obama Say" Durbin has chimed in on Spike Lee's movie about violence and the failure of public schools in Chicago neighborhoods. Here's Dithering Dick, “I want to give Mr. Lee the opportunity to explain the nature of this movie,” he said. “I don’t know much more about it, other than the title. It is worrisome.”

It is worrisome because Rahm's most ardent black minister is white pastor Michael Pfleger and Pastor Pfleger hosted the Cusacks at St. Sabina Faith Community's Easter services, as well as Jeremy Piven who played Ari on HBO's family comedy Entourage and Ari was based upon Rahm Emanuel's Hollywood bundler brother Ari.

Worrisome.

It's kind of funny.  Only a few years ago, a freshman at Leo High School, Antonio Davis was murdered on the streets where he lived.  Leo High School absorbed the full expense of burying this nice kid: paid for the grave, the funeral home, the church the services and hosted the repast following the funeral for three hundred of Antonio's family members and neighbors.

The funeral services took place at 127th & Harlem on tropically hot and torrentially rainy day. Hundreds of mourners packed the un-air conditioned church and waited for the ceremonies to begin.  The funeral director had been contacted by the Office of the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel to wait until the Mayor could pay his respects.  Twenty, forty, sixty minutes went by.   The services were stalled because were waiting for Rahm Emanuel. It was worrisome.

Worrisome, because little kids and the elderly were swooning from the sticky heat.  The Mayor arrived.  He brushed past the Leo High School President without word or greeting.  The Leo High School President had taken the burden from family of Antonio Davis upon himself - cost and logistics. A week's worth of burden.

Rahm Emanuel not so much as nodded.  I though that funny and worrisome.

Worrisome, this funny little man had only just begun his role as Mayor of Chicago.

Funny, because over the next three years Rahm Emanuel did what he does - raises money for himself and ignores everyone else, until the first run-off election in Chicago's history was forced upon him.

Rahm was just forced to undergo the first run-off election in Chicago's history, because Chicago is plagued with thug violence and bad public schools.  Rahm closed 50 bad public schools on the south and west sides of Chicago, where the sobriquet "Chiraq" was coined.  The closing of the bad public schools forced children to cross into neighborhoods where gang-turf is delineated by rounds spent from a 9mm.
Worrisome

Worrisome, because Pastor Pfleger endorsed not only Rahm, but a candidate for alderman of the 17th Ward who would serve Rahm Emanuel and all of his works and that candidate was beaten like a red-headed rented mule in the February General Election.

More Worrisome, was the fact that Rahm was forced into the only run-off election in Chicago's history and was required to contort, tap-dance, threaten, wheedle, poke, promise and punish black politicians, reverends, urban translators and community leaders for support.  He got it and beat his challenger by double figures.

A worrisome thing that.

Now, when all is well,  more worrisome mischief creeps into the ink of Chicago - Spike Lee is making a movie!

Worrisome is the theme of thug violence and bad public schools. More Worrisome is the title of the movie that reflects the opinion of the people on the west and South Sides that Chicago, in some neighborhoods, is a dangerous as Iraq, or Yeman, or Syria, or Egypt, or Kenya..

It's worrisome.  Just when the very people who orchestrated Chicago's misery had the opportunity to finally paw political kitty litter over the crap of their own making, along come Spike Lee, who might be the best American director since John Ford, pointing out the mess.  Worrisome.

They (Rahm,Durbin et al) do not want the movie to be Chiraq!  Dick Durbin who lies every second breath calls this worrisome,

Spike, I think we have a working title - "Worrisome!"

I think Dick Durbin would make a swell Pastor Pfleger.

Throw Away America - Margaret Sanger to Faiz Ikramull

“Initially, our investigation has shown that the father left the child in a garbage can and drove away,” 

Imagine, a three year old girl, a toddler, wanders along a very busy road near a Cook County Forest Preserve.  She is crying and waving her hands.

The sight and sound of a child in distress should spark some human sympathy.  Good people responded.

The little girl could give police officers only her first name, but the cops managed to identify the child's parents and learned that the girl's mother had indeed filed a missing persons report not only for her baby but her father.

The father, Faiz Ikramulla, was tracked down in Van Buren County Michigan and arrested.

Faiz Ikramulla had placed his child in Forest Preserve garbage can and walked off.

Last week, someone tossed a kitten from a moving vehicle sparking no end consternation. Happens all of the time.  A few years ago persons tended to drive into my neighborhood with their unwanted pets, open the doors and let them out.  I once called 911 when a pooch was tossed from a car.  Poor thing died. I could not get the plate numbers.  Sad, but no where near what happens to children and old people.  People get more worked up over the mistreatment animals than do over a child in a woman's uterus, or argue that we must be sensitive cultural 'differences' when children are concerned.

We live in toss-away America.  Parents wear out the old viability warranty and get packed off to Shady Rest ASAP.  Relationships fall on hard times and Attorney E. Claude Balls types up a divorce.  We UnFriend.  We ReCycle. We Abort.

That miserable old hog of a woman, Margaret Sanger, managed to convince shallow people with college degrees that Birth Control is humane and abortion a sacrament of secular freedom.  Until this country abandons its selfish and cowardly love affair with abortion, it will continue diminish itself at home and abroad.

Yes, abortion opposition must be a litmus test for elected officials. Smarmy creeps like President Obama,Senators Durbin and Kirque, Governor Rauner, Mayor Emanuel should not hold office.  If you are cool with calling the murder of a child in its mother's womb health care, you will have no problem selling your vote to any corporation, or country.  If you justify the murder of children, why not the killing of the elderly, the disabled, unpopular, or the opposition?  Eugenics worked well for the Third Reich, until unevolved Americans did something about it. 

I am one carbon footprint that will never evolve in a way that allows me to politely accept a point a view that in any way mistreats a child (womb to Holy Sepulchre).
Monsters hold a very evolved and sophisticated opinion on this.  Monsters who would abort, abandon the elderly to institutional abuse, or stuff a toddler into a Cook County Forest Preserve garbage can.

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Obama, Holder, Sharpton and The News Media Own This War on Cops

“There must be national policy and national law on policing,” Mr. Sharpton said. “We can’t go from state to state, we’ve got to have national law to protect people against these continued questions.”

 Crowns Heights Al Sharpton is President Obama's Federal Race Gestapo Ombudsman.

From the day that a tipsy Henry Louis Gates forgot the keys to house, President Obama, Eric "A Nation of Cowards" Holder and America's Prize Race Grifter Al Sharpton have done their level best to destroy any and all respect Americans have for police officers.

Obama has been wrong on every one of his forays into "Let's Have A National Chat on Race," or this is a "Teachable Moment" and has been backed with the full force of his Justice Department and the American National News Media.

Here is the fruit of that labor.





This will be the Obama legacy.

Ain't No Devil Like the One I Got, But Nothing Akin to Cromwell or Dick Durbin

Dick Durbin at Illinois Planned Parenthood Award 2013

Cromwell at Drogheda 1681



"I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands in so much innocent blood and that it will tend to prevent the effusion [shedding] of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." Oliver Cromwell to Parliament on the Massacre f Drogheda*

"The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Maragret Sanger

What bedevils you? I would assume that something, or someone causes all of us great confusion and concerns attendant.

Lord knows I have me some powerful demons. Sophisticates might say that I am complicated.  Most people would argue that I just behave like a jerk. I do at times.

I had a coach in grammar school who yell at me to 'quit contemplating my navel.' Prolonged navel gazing often leads one to require a proctologist to husband his wealth of skills in the removal of the noggin from the rump.  In that spirit, my Catholic upbringing demanded hours spent in activities where the gaze was required above and beyond the less wholesome body parts and to brighter horizons. With age came the luxury and the curse of too much time on my own hands, which worked overtime in the Devil's workshop. Stay busy in life, or become a United States Senator from Illinois.

There is a Devil and his name is Satan, but he works with a crowd of lesser demons dedicated to bringing me along with them - to jump in the fiery Lake of Gehenna, because they did too.

That seems to be a pretty simple explanation from an otherwise 'complicated' man.

I think that people are born good, but some of us work like the Devil to go against our natures, St. Gregory said of demons that they were named by their offices and not their natures.  Evangelical Christians view good and evil as the attitude one has toward complete fundamental acceptance of the Christian God and everything else is evil.

Mainline Protestants see good and evil as results, just like John Dewey, that either harm people or benefit them.

Catholics tend to be . . .complicated, when dealing with good and evil.  We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin, because we are children of Fall - the 'poor banished children of Eve'  and we call that Original Sin. It comes with our belly buttons.  We suffer for our sins and the sins of others, but know that we are redeemed by Christ's triumph over the cross.

Now comes the hard part.  We also "Choose."  We are Pro-Choice in matters of evil.  To me the gravest sin occurs when I choose which sin is convenient to me.  I pick and choose which decision to turn away from God.

God made everything good.  He made angels.  Those angels have free will.  Some of those angels decided to do what the hell they felt like doing.  The chief angel, according to Genesis, Wisdom and  John's Revelation, as well as Oliver Cromwell's Minister of Latin, old blind John Milton decided to be God.

Now, Cromwell was no Senator Dick Durbin, our own oleaginous cheerleader for abortion who helped ease the feet of women into the abortionist's stirrups and accounted for more dead children than ISIS -right here in America. Dick Durbin might not be Satan, but he sure gives that hoofed gent the freedom of the walkway.

Choosing to murder a child is evil. Choosing a Senator, or President, or Dog Catcher who backs abortion for any public office, sure seems evil to me. Then again, I am a complicated sinner.

As it is, the Devil we know, the one who tells us to choose convenience over life has some very powerful, sophisticated and wealthy friends.  They are not friendly to my Church. They have more concern for a stray dog, than a seven pound baby in a woman's Federally protected uterus,Image result for abortion murders in 2014
The whole Church and each one of her children are beset by dangers, the fire of persecution, the enervation of ease, the dangers of wealth and of poverty, heresies and errors of opposite characters, rationalism and superstition, fanaticism and indifference. Catholic Encyclopedia

Persecution - That is an easy one. Catholics are hated, especially by secularists
Enervation of Ease - The Life of an Oligarch
Dangers of Wealth & Poverty - Enough is never a feast
Heresies and Errors of Opposite Characters - See Dick Durbin
Rationalism and Superstition - 50/50 Senator
Fanaticism and Indifference - Quality of Life trumps Life

Sounds like the ltmus test to be the Senior Senator from Illinois.


*Drogheda was one of the first cities Cromwell faced. He offered fair terms and gave his men strict instructions against excessive violence. However, the situation fluctuated a good deal. As Drogheda's fortunes waned or waxed, the garrison alternately negotiated or stalled. Cromwell's troops broke through the wall before negotiations were complete (possibly with inside help) and rushed through the town, killing virtually everyone in the city. They set fire to St. Mary's church, burning alive those who had taken refuge in it and then butchered women hiding in the vaults below. Some accounts say they used Irish children as human shields and killed every priest, treating them like combatants, because they had encouraged the defenders. According to those tales, only thirty defenders survived and they were sold as slaves to Barbados. At least one of the English soldiers claimed that Cromwell himself ordered the slaughter.

Mythology and Meaning - Lady Gregory

Lady Gregory (nee  Isabella Augusta Persse) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who fell in love with Irish legends and Celtic mythology through her Irish Catholic nanny.  This was a kind of Celtic Uncle Tom's Cabin. Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, a New England Yankee steeped in firebrand abolitionism, Lady Gregory was well-meaning do-gooder with a splendid ear and wicked sense of humor.  Women on the outside of of historical issues who very much wanted to break some glass, Lady Gregory and Beecher Stowe are credited with two civil wars.

Lady Gregory sparked not only the Celtic Revival in literary art, but also inspired generations of Fenians.  Harriet Beecher Stowe, President Lincoln was reported to have said upon meeting her in 1862, "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

However, both women managed to create human archetypes.  Harriet Beecher Stowe's characters Uncle Tom, Little Eva and especially Simon Legree became part of the American vernacular.

I found this passage from Lady Gregory quite interesting -

And it is what the poets of Ireland used to be saying, that every brave man, good at fighting, and every man that could do great deeds and not be making much talk about them, was of the Sons of the Gael; and that every skilled man that had music and that did enchantments secretly, was of the Tuatha de Danaan. But they put a bad name on the Firbolgs and the men of Domnann and the Gaileoin, for lies and for big talk and injustice. But for all that there were good fighters among them, and Ferdiad, that made so good a stand against Cuchulain, in the war for the Bull of Cuailgne was one of them. And the Gaileoin fought well in the same war; but the men of Ireland had no great liking for them, and their Druids drove them out of the country afterwards. from Gods and Fighting Men, by Lady Gregory

Lady Gregory offers a psychological taxonomy:

Gaels - tough guys what don't talk about it.  Sportsmen, soldiers, cops, firemen, nurses, bartenders:  heroes and legends.
Tuatha de Danaan - poets, bards, scholars.  Teachers, writers and priests
Firbolgs - Politicians, grifters, opportunists.   Advocates, activists and anchor persons

I do not believe that this classification is limited to Celts.

Some folks sure do make themselves known, by how they behave.

Prate About An Elephant Nobody Has Seen: An Indian Tale About Politics?

How was your Election Night?  Mine was brief.

Once there was a village high in the mountains in which everyone was born blind. One day a traveler arrived from far away with many fine things to sell and many tales to tell. The villagers asked, "How did you travel so far and so high carrying so much?" The traveler said, "On my elephant." "What is an elephant?" the villagers asked, having never even heard of such an animal in their remote mountain village. "See for yourself," the traveler replied.
The elders of the village were a little afraid of the strange-smelling creature that took up so much space in the middle of the village square. They could hear it breathing and munching on hay, and feel its slow, swaying movements disturbing the air around them. First one elder reached out and felt its flapping ear. "An elephant is soft but rough and flexible, like a leather fan." Another grasped its back leg. "An elephant is a rough, hairy pillar." An old woman took hold of a tusk and gasped, "An elephant is a cool, smooth staff." A young girls seized the tail and declared, "An elephant is a fringed rope." A boy took hold of the trunk and announced, "An elephant is a water pipe." Soon others were stroking its sides which were furrowed like a dry plowed field, and others determined that its head was an overturned washing tub attached to the water pipe.
At first each villager argued with the others on the definition of the elephant as the traveler watched in silence. Two elders were about to come to blows about a fan that could not possibly be a pillar. Meanwhile the elephant patiently enjoyed the investigations as the cries of curiosity and angry debate mixed in the afternoon sun. Soon someone suggested that a list could be made of all the parts: the elephant had four pillars, one tub, two fans, a water pipe, and two staffs, and was covered in tough, hairy leather or dried mud. Four young mothers, sitting on a bench and comparing impressions, realized that the elephant was in fact an enormous , gentle ox with a stretched nose. The traveler agreed, adding only that it was also a powerful draft horse and that if they bought some of his wares for a good price he would be sure to come that way again in the new year.         Indian Tale

Congratulations to the Pipe Trades! Rahm Owes Skilled Labor Big Time.

The first sign that Rahm Emanuel might hold Chicago for another four years went up on the Dan Ryan Expressway on east side near 79th Street.  Sometime in October, the huge sign praising Rahm for that he is went up at expense of the United Piipe Trades of Chicago;shortly, thereafter, the skilled trades unions sided with the plumbers and pipe fitters in a marshaling of labor forces that eclipsed the public salaried unions - The Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU.

Anyone of the two people in my legion of readers knows that I am a constant critic public sector unions and fierce defender of the skilled trades, but I found myself on the side of SEIU and CTU in this mayoral election - general and runoff.

It is a headscratcher. I am no fan of Rahm Emanuel - not now;not no how.  He is a what is wrong with the Democratic Party which since the 1972 Democratic Convention became a torts platform and grievance utility.

I believe in neighbors. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia is a neighbor.   Rahm Emanuel is Richard M. Daley with better syntax, better tailor and better barber.

Rahm Emanuel and all of his polls won.

The congratulations go, not to the $ 1,200 suits and $400 haircuts, but to the skilled trades locals of Chicago.  They put Rahm over.  Now, swell haircuts should be consigned to the back of the elevator going up to the 5th Floor of City Hall . . .for a couple of weeks anyway.

Ogden and Fry, Chicago Newspapers and Rahm Aside: Your Vote Counts

CHICAGO — New poll data from Ogden and Fry indicates the gap between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia is widening, with Emanuel taking the lead.
The one-question survey was conducted between April 3 and 4 and received more than 1,700 responses. On April 4, respondents were asked to choose one of the two candidates, with the option to choose "undecided." In that vote, Emanuel's 499 votes (51.3 percent) topped Garcia's 321 (33 percent), and 152 voters (15.6 percent) were left undecided.

According to the latest poll conducted by the wizards of Ogden & Fry, - RAHM CAN"T LOSE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HEAR ME, HELOTS?????????  RAHM CAN'T LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS SO OVER!

This little political scientific certainty, aside,  Your Vote Counts. Polls are conducted, not to measure accurately, but to conclude. They are straight from the heart of John Dewey who told simple Americans that inquiry is truth and that outcomes are all that matters.

Voting is the only poll that matters.

Voting is the only means a citizen can do to give voice to his/her condition.

If you believe that Rahm Emanuel is the key to a fair shake, vote for Rahm

If you believe that Jesus "Chuy" Garcia can send the oligarchs of Chicago, Cook County and Illinois running for a new means of living off of the State, vote Chuy.

You will not get saved, but we might get redeemed.

I voted for Chuy.

Rahm Made Me Easter Breakfast

I wake early. Generally, I wake between 3:30 and 4:10 AM.  Easter Sunday is no exception.  I hit the floor and pray on my knees ( Memorare) hit the shower, shave and brush my buckers.  I'll read a bit and jot down some sentences about anything, as has been my practice since 1975 when I became a teacher.  I will pop over to Leo High School and check the e-mails and phone messages.  At 8 AM, I'll lock up, check the Sangamon Street side door to see if the pad lock is secure and head south on Vincennes to 116th, make a quick right hit Easter Mass at Sacred Heart Church.

Today was different.  

House sounds tend to pluck me from the arms of Morpheus - sump pump kicking in, furnace oddities that sort of stuff.  If any of the kids are staying at the house, I'll sleep with one eye open for their return from twenty-something adventures on Western Avenue.  

Today was different.

I heard the floors above me ( I sleep in the basement) creak and the sound of the refrigerator opening and closing, as well as the rustle of pans. Maybe, the Fruit of My Loins had come south from Wicker Park for a night of roistering with his contemporary Catholic League Alumni boon chums and was treating them to an omelet. Could be, because something smelled mighty tasty. The girls always go straight to bed, but my son goes all Food Channel, when lickered up - like his Paw.

I performed the daily Triple S, donned a pair of sharply creased chinos and blue steel Aran knit and headed up the stairs, " Toss a few on the plate for your Silver Haired Pappy, Son!"

No response.

Odd.

There, instead of my son, or one of my daughters was The Mayor of Chicago deftly swirling what appeared to be a wholesome skillet full of carefully diced green red and yellow peppers and onions.  I noticed a plate on the counter of crisp nuggets of sauteed pancetta and a cloth stuffed basket containing six biscuits.  The 55th Mayor of Chicago added a bowl of carefully beaten eggs with a dash of 2% milk into the pan and swirled the mixture of yellow, red, green and white goodness over the flames. " You have yet to pay your water bill and that had been sent out in January, if I'm not mistaken," said the 54th descendant of William Butler Ogden, " and why have you not had a water meter installed?  Just asking."

I was dumb-founded and for once in my flannel-mouthed life speechless.

The Mayor was all on task and yet he continued, " Look, you have said and written some pretty . . . over-the-top things about me - Coon Eyes, Mayor 9.5, Ballet Boy and such . . .I get it.  Most of your family seem to like me well-enough, but you seem to only want to be some kind of latitudinarian odd-ball, regular guy Democrat.  You have called me, in print mind you, a Prique.  I have kids, too.  Look.  I may not get your vote, but I'd sure like to change your heart. Sit done and have a nosh of breakfast."

Finally, I was able to speak and asked, " How'd you get in?"

" Back door was unlocked.  I checked your garage and every thing seemed in order.  Do you always leave it unlocked?" he fired back questions.

I told him that my neighbors were all cops, firemen, FBI and Secret Service agents.  

" Whatever," the mayor shrugged and added the pre-crisped and drained pancetta to the bubbling omelet and concentrated on its outcome.

" Chuy Garcia make you breakfast?"

I laughed an obvious reply to negative.

" Well has he?" Rahm Emanuel had cast off the happy chef demeanor and laser-ed his black rimmed eyes and parted his thin lips to reveal his ossein and metaphorical fangs.

"No, Chuy Garcia has not cooked me breakfast; nor have I had the pleasure of meeting the man," I feigned backbone in retort.

"But you have met me!"  His voice was pure menace, but his culinary manipulations belied his tone as he plated up and served my breakfast of cold fresh squeezed orange juice, hot black coffee, Omelet Ala Rahm, hand rolled biscuits and wedges of melon. " Eat. Enjoy."

I tucked away at the swell meal, like a guy going to the chair. . .perhaps I might.

The Mayor waxed on, " Old Coon-eyes, Old 9.5, The Dancing Prique just cooked you an Easter Breakfast. Me. I rub elbows with Big People, Hickey.  You are a @#$%ing termite!!!!  A delusional know-it all who can't be grateful for all that I have done.  All that I have given up - like Sleep!  Yeah, this Prique made you breakfast!  You got anything to say?"

I held up an index finger miming a period of grace before my response, because my pie-hole was stuffed.  I chewed carefully and savored every dancing flavor from the fork-full of breakfast bounty. Finally, when I had cleared my oral orifice of every particle of primary fuel, I answered.

"Hey, thanks for breakfast,"  

The Mayor cleaned the pots, skillets, sauce pans, baking pans and cutlery. He sprayed the prep-counter with Windex all purpose anti-biotic cleaner, as well as the stove top and scrubbed every station in the cooking process and wiped the handle of icebox. 

Without another word, Rahm Emanuel zipped up his wind-breaker and went out the back door.  He beeped open the door of his black 2015 Toyota Prius C and pulled out of my driveway.

I thought for a moment.

" Prique," I muttered, "but one damn fine breakfast."

"Money Means Something" My April Column for Irish American News

                                  

 Kareem on the right inthe Virgin Mary Blue Polo is the hardest working guy I know

Naceda and Bidya on the right are the hardest working women in American!


                                                      Money Means Something

Work in the worldly life relies upon diligence. Therefore, man is required to work hard and actively, leaving behind laziness. The Quran and Sunnah direct us towards this understanding. Allah The Almighty Says (what means):

{And say, “Work, for Allah will see your deeds, and [so, will] His Messenger and the believers.”} [Quran 9:105]

                                                 

I was brought up to work hard.  My father worked three jobs and my mother was housewife in the care of three kids.  All of my uncles and a few of my aunts had more than one job outside of the home.   My family left Ireland in the early part of 20th Century, when Teddy Roosevelt was President – Grandpa Hickey, a big husky Kerry bogman, worked in the Chicago stockyards, then as a stockyard police man and then helped found the Stationary Engineers Union in Chicago. Granny Hickey from the islands off southern Kerry and then near Cahirciveen came to the States with little English and fewer pennies and worked for the swells in the magnificent homes on south Prairie and Calumet Avenues as a cook learning from a Mexican and an African American woman.

They met when they worked at the Metro pole Hotel on Cermak Road, Larry heaving coal into furnaces and Nora cooking for the swells. They married at Holy Family on Roosevelt Road and had fourteen children- seven boys and seven girls.  One little girl died of a fever, they were fortunate. Thirteen role models and American workers lived through the Depression, World War II and labor warfare.

I once walked past a penny on the sidewalk and my Dad barked, “pick that up!’  It’s only a penny. “ Your Grandfather, my brothers and me and hundreds of other working-stiffs walked hundreds of miles on picketlines, got a nightstick on the head, spit at, arrested and locked-out of jobs for that penny, smartass.  Now, pick it up and give it to your brother when we get home.”

Money means something.

I respected that for the balance of my life.  My Dad and uncles were easy with buck and always Duke’d us little guys with some “Walking Around, Folding Dough and Spending Loot.”  Uncles Bart, Donny, Sy, Mike, Bud and Jack knew the value of a dollar and knew how to part with it with liberal ease.  Money means something to little guys. It means comic books, Dixie Cups, Chuckles and Pop.

Money represents the values of hard work, sacrifice, loyalty and labor.

Granny Hickey always paid a ‘special visit’ to Monsignor Stephen J. McMahon of Little Flower Church. The Hickey’s were among the first settlers in that great parish and helped build its still magnificent campus, now used by Charter Schools and Father Pfleger.  The priest’s house is where the pastor of St. Sabina’s parks his cars.

The Irish immigrants from County Kerry helped  the Church and the founding of a grammar school and convent and eventually a co-educational Catholic high school, later closed by Cardinal Cody only to make the point to other pastors that he could.

Money means something.

I was reminded of that fact on Sunday March 15th just before the South Side Irish Parade conducted by a son of Little Flower Parish Tom McGourty from 77th & Wood Street.  I was going to Mass at a cousin’s home which is an annual family gathering and I needed to get out of the neighborhood before the parade step-off.  Streets are strategically blocked after 10 AM.  I needed to get to Oak Park by 11 and Mass was at 9:30, so I drove to 99th & Oakley – I usually walk over to my cousin’s house.  I found a good spot for easy parade egress and a clear path to the Dan Ryan and decided to grab a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts on 104th & Western Ave.

It was here that I recalled my peasant roots and immigrant values when I was greeted by my pal Kareem, the manager of Dunkin Donuts/

Kareem and his crew of Naceda, Larry and Bidya are my family.

Every morning, Monday through Friday, I am at Dunkin Donuts a little after 4 AM, where I am greeted with Kareem’s hale and happy, “ Leo Hickey! How’s Myles Turner( a Leo Man shot up by gangbangers and struggling to walk again); He’s at Chicago State, yes?”  I answer as best I can and say good morning to Naceda and Larry from India.  This happy couple live in Homer Glen.  Bidya always asks, “ How’s  Jimmy Sexton, I love that man!”  Mayor Jimmy Sexton, also a Little Flower man, of Evergreen Park helped Bidya recover more than $ 4,000 from a fraud of a window contractor.  Jimmy Sexton knows the value of a buck to hard-working people.  Cousin Sylvester “Sy” Hickey, Chief Engineer at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital arrives and fights me for the morning payment of the Zoom Juice.  I surrender easily, always have. Kareem does the color commentary.

Kareem is a native of Morocco, lived a while in France and is married to an American girl and together they have three lovely children .  They live on 99th Street on the border of Evergreen Park.  Kareem is at work every morning at 3AM and he is present every day.  He says, that he always takes Sunday off to clean the garage and do a Dad Commands Clean-up of the homestead, followed by a spoiling of the children outing.

I call Kareem and his crew the hardest working Americans always to their protestations – “ Painter Pat Maloney works much harder!”  He do?  I have only witnessed these role models move with speed, race and accuracy in making change and always with smiling grace. 

Kareem, Bidya, Naceda and Larry seem to be there every day. They do not own the franchise; they own non-stop flow of customers, greeted by name and always with genuine affection. America will be just fine.  A couple out of County Kerry did their kids proud and they, in turn, the same.

Money means something.

The Bible speaks of it and so does the Quran.  

From Irish American News for April (p.45)

Could Today, April 3rd, Be The Exact Parallel Date of the Crucifixion? Scholars, Sources and Loyola in the 1970's

 

On the whole I consider that the date A.D. 33 April 3 offers fewer difficulties than any of the
others, but my ambition has been rather to explain the character and tendencies of the different
lines of evidence than to arrive at a conclusion, and I believe, as I certainly hope, that my opinionhas in no part of the discussion been biased by the desire to support any particular conclusion. J.K. Fotheringham 1934

Those of us who studied at Loyola University in the 1970's remember Father Filas, S.J. as one of the pivotal scholars in the study of the historical Jesus, based upon his deep scrutiny of the Shroud of Turin.  Father Filas seemed to be Loyola's show-horse. I never had the opportunity to study with Father Filas, but many of my pals had the pleasure.  We were the south side L-crowd and took classes in the old brown stone Lewis Towers and the now long gone Marquette Center which was accessed by a bridge over Rush.  I missed out on Father Filas.

There were others, many other: Dr. Francis Swarzenberg, Dr. Larry McCaffery (Leo '43), Father Charles Ronan & etc.

I recall taking classes and a senior seminar on English histor from the War of Roses to the Stuarts with Dr. Lionel Trimble. Dr. Trimble was an exacting scholar who expected no less than exacting work from this former member of Janitors Local #25 and a senior hoping to graduate on time with Mike Manske, James "Molly" Molloy, Mike Miller, Mary Kay Harvey, Joe Phelps and Rita Buckley, with whom he had begun his baby steps on the scholastic throw rug.

Dr. Trimble argued for the very best sources, as the only key to unlocking the past.  Paper and parchment crumbles, rots, burns and tucks neatly away in places meant to shun the eyes of the curious. Censorship, neglect, wars, pestilence and the ancient examples of losing the TV remote affected history as well.

We must always be careful about jumping to conclusions - Irish Inquiry.

We must always be sceptical of partisanship when it comes to memory - Irish Alzheiners.

We must always look to 'the best sources.' One is an excerpt, unearthed, so to speak, and reprinted in Real Clear History,

Early this morning of good Friday, I finished reading a great old piece of scholarship by J.K. Fotheringham (14 August 1874 – 12 December 1936).  John Knight Fotheringham was a British scholar of Middle Eastern history and religious history.

Fotherigham dove into the deep end of the pool and came up with treasure chest packed with scholarship: Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic sources that includes Josephus, the Synoptic Gospels, as well as the Gospel of John, Tacitus, Annidazugga, as well as, what we should call, modern (His contemporaries) studies.

This is a dense read. It is slow going.  It was just like the dusty texts and manuscripts dumped in my mitts by Dr. Lionel Trimble concerning that nasty son of a bitch Perkin Warbeck.   Yet, we arrive at a scholar's conclusion. April 3, A.D. 33.

The primary morals of an undergraduate, wearing Orchestra Hall janitor's wear, come back and I nod with conviction.  Old Johnny Knight Fotherington nailed it.  Maybe.  

My Return to the Classroom to Make Constant War on Test Scores and Low Expectation

The world suffers its well-meaning fools,
who often jump in before sensibility rules.
Afraid to confront what they know not,
they carry their protection like a frock. Ronald W. Hull 

I have missed teaching English to high school kids.  In order to support my family, I have been doing Institutional Advancement work since 1994 - exclusively.  Here, at Leo High School, I have substituted in the classroom when and where needed. One year I taught science for three weeks. Christ forgive me.

Time to go back in.

The kids need an experienced, demanding and deeply schooled goad in the classroom.  The need is great.  One of the most heroic young men that it has been honor to meet in forty years of teaching and education struggles with reading and he will graduate and go on to college in few months.

He has never been challenged.  I pick the young man up in Bronzeville every morning and he is constantly buried in some text.  One teacher even  selected a For Dummies product.  I am not kidding. That was my epiphany - or, in Apple/Smart Book language my WTF moment.

I told the fierce and moral young gent, " Read anything, but this is a bit off-putting."

He replied, " What's 'off-putting?'

" It means if you are handed some horseshit, don't eat it."

" Word."

" To be sure, my friend.  How did you feel when these books were trotted out."

" I was pissed, but Mr. _______ said that we needed this to get the basic understanding of the stuff."

"  Would you rather eat at Mikey D's, or Schaller's? "

" Schallers no doubt."

" Why?"

" The food is better and they treat you with dignity. not like some punk."



The teacher was well-meaning and having read the entry scores formed his curriculum.

More damage has been done by well-meaning chart readers than anything caused in nature.  Neville Chamberlain, General Walter Short, WEB Dubois, . . .

I will return to the classroom and I will use the Norton Introduction to Literature Anthology  at all four levels.  Four years;one book.

No kiddie lit; no pop novels; no ethno-centric pap,  no PC huggie books, no comic books; no graphic novels, but real meaty poetry, fiction, drama and prose, as well as critical essays.  The students will read and understand what they read.  They will speak of what they read and they will write about what they have read

I get sickened when I find hundreds of unopened, unread and discarded copies of To Kill a Mockingbird, The Kite Runner and The Great Gatsby covering the halls on the last day of the year.  One text for four years.

They will not be denied contact with white table cloths, cutlery and cuisine.  They will not be denied courtesy and prompt service from their attendant service provider.  They will knock down the best in writing and thought.  They will learn to be discerning This I pledge.

This will be no tip-toe through the tulips in search of rainbows and unicorns. This will be a bitch and a half and worth it.

Real Words from a Real Heart: A Response to an Unreal Media Hack Job by the Sun Times

 

This letter appeared in a post on 19th Ward Blog, a wonderful site.  It is the letter from my friend Mike Joyce responding to the cut-and-paste attack ad put together by the Sun Times Watchdogs on Palm Sunday.

"Don't shed any tears for me on the Sun Times smear piece done on me yesterday. I'm a big boy I can handle it. Rahm's got to be pretty desperate for me to rate the front page on a weekend where dozens of people were shot.
For the record I was never contacted for comment on the article. If I had been contacted I would have informed them that I have worked on over 30 elections since Emanuel became mayor and that revenge and my family members were not pertinent to my support of Chuy Garcia.
I am very proud of all of my family members and when somebody in the neighborhood is looking for help they are always there for them. As an elected official my father worked harder and did more for the residents of the 19th Ward than anybody. He did his job tirelessly, selflessly and didn't seek credit or publicity for serving his constituents. He was personally responsible for appointing Mike Sheahan, Ginger Rugai and Tom Dart to their first public offices. My brother Kevin was elected and served the residents of the 19th Ward as an Illinois State Representative. Kevin is a cancer survivor and is now the Vice President of Ave Maria University in Florida.
Both my father and my brother were personally and politically pro life Democrats. There has been nobody in Illinois politics that has been more pro union than my father or my brother.
As far as my involvement with Chuy Garcia goes, I became acquainted with Chuy Garcia through my good friend in the boxing business JC. JC's father and Chuy brought the great labor leader Cesar Chavez to Chicago over 30 years ago. I am supporting Chuy because he is the right candidate for our neighborhood. He has promised to hire 1000 new Police Officers that our community desperately needs. He grew up in a real Chicago neighborhood, attended St. Rita High School, is way more in tune with our community than Rahm.
 Rahm is the wealthy Washington insider whose union credentials include making millions with his billionaire buddy Anti Union Governor Bruce Rauner, passing American job killer NAFTA, saying F*** the United Auto Workers and telling Chicago Teacher's Union President Karen Lewis "F*** you Lewis".
I admire all leaders in Organized Labor Unions. Many unions are supporting Chuy and the ones who are not have no reason to be anti Chuy. In his 30 year public service Chuy has a 100% pro union voting record.
I was proud to have Chuy march in the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade. He got a genuine rousing cheers all along the Parade route. Chuy has also gotten that kind of reception each of the many times he has visited the 19th Ward. The current mayor does not get that kind of reception in our neighborhood and our alderman did not even endorse him until after his own election was over.
The paper says that I am a lawyer and a boxing coach. It is true that I earn my living as an attorney but as a boxing coach I do not earn a penny. I use boxing to give back to the community.
For over 20 years I have served as a volunteer boxing coach at the West Englewood Boys Club, Leo High School and the Celtic Boxing Club. Through amateur boxing shows I have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy causes and charities including the St. Baldrick's Foundation, the Mercy Home, the Irish American Foundation, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, Leo High School, the West Englewood Boys Club, the Officer John Hurley Family Fund, Catholic Charities, the Illinois State Crime Commission/Police Athletic League of Illinois, the Tommy Z Foundation, the Charlie Weiss Hannah and Friends Autism Foundation and many others. I have also had the opportunity to have inner city youth train alongside Chicago Police Officers and Chicago Firefighters for the Battle of the Badges.
The newspaper may want to bash me for political reasons but I am blessed and greatful for the support of friends in the community. My support for Chuy is based solely on my wanting my 3 year old grow up in a neighborhood that I grew up in."
The words of Michael J. Joyce, 3/30/15