Beau Dowling: Sixteen Months Old and Ready to Duke it Out with Cancer
Last week I asked anyone within pestering distance to toss up some prayers for Ryan Rusch who was undergoing another in a long series of life-threatening operations.
Ryan is doing handsomely.
Beau Dowling of St. John Fisher Parish in West Beverly is undergoing cancer surgery as I type these words. Don't make the little man do it on his own.
As I stated then there is nothing more heart breaking than a sick child and this little man and his young mother, father and siblings need arm loads of prayers.
As in Ryan Rusch's need, I suggested the Memorare - the sure fire tug on the blouse of Our Lady.
This prayer seems to work its wonders in every circumstance*.
REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Pray it up. I won't kill you, or cost you nickel one.
* for any 'Yeah, Butt'ers:
In the Memorare the claim is made that the Virgin Mary has never left unaided a soul who asked her intercession. But when I prayed the Memorare for my intention, the situation for which I prayed got worse, not better. This has shaken my faith. What happened?
Answer
The wording of the Memorare is not intended to oblige the Blessed Mother or God to answer your prayer in the exact manner that you specify. It is a statement of utter trust, said with faith that the Blessed Mother and God will always answer the prayers of the faithful, even if the answer given is not the one for which the supplicant hoped.
It is possible that the Blessed Mother did help you in your particular trial. Perhaps she obtained for you the grace to carry your burden with courage and patience. Perhaps she obtained for you the grace to delve more deeply into your Catholic faith through prayer, which is what you did in fact do. By all means, keep praying the Memorare for your intention, keeping in mind Jesus’ example of prayerful supplication for the relief of trials: "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).
There is nothing more heart-breaking for parents than any child suffering. Those of us who are parents do and should feel for anyone's child, no matter the age, when major health problems threaten their time with us.
Ryan Rusch lives in West Beverly ( The west of Western Ave. - the Cape Cod, raised ranch and Georgian home Beverly working stiff tribe of the 60642 Zip Code). Ryan was born with a rare heart disorder where only one artery supplies blood flow instead of the standard two. He and his family have fought for life from the moment of birth.
Ten years ago, three teens decided to beat Ryan nearly to death. It was a horrific beating, racially motivated by the attacker own words, but not deemed to be a Hate Crime. Well, that is blood under the bridge.
Ryan added brain damage and all that goes with that, vision impairment, seizures, struggles with attention to studies, to his struggles with the aid of those, but he is one tough kid. He played football, graduated from St. Rita High School and attended college. Then heart problems resurfaced.
He is undergoing dramatic surgery as I hit these keys.
We have prayed for Ryan and his family for weeks at daily services in St. John Fisher and at Sacred Heart. At Sacred Heart, we conclude the readings and prayers of the faithful in preparation for the Celebration of Eucharist with the Memorare.
This very special prayer to Our Lady is a miracle worker. I taught it to many of the guys at Leo High School who are not Catholic and they said saying this prayer seemed to help them anyway. The words were stange to them, as it is to too many Catholics these days.
REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Do me a favor. Send up a couple of Memorares over the next few days for the Rusch Family and all children who suffer from health problems. Send some up for yourself, as well.
It won't kill you and it just might ease some family's burdens. Say the words, even if you hate God, religion, or sentiment.
This is how Mary Schmich of the Tribune wants Chicagoans to understand the nature of a beating meted out by a score or less of vigorous black youth. Just like the photo above, for all the readers in Lake County.
Flash Mobs is a cute name. It is an adorable way to describe the pummeling of victims by a score or less of hardy youths enjoying an outing in the Gold Coast, Streeterville, Northwestern Campus, River North, or even the Bean. Flash Mob is the latest Chicago Media serving of Blatant Sophistry (BS). PC is the Old Country Buffet of Blatant Sophistry.
Mary Schmich is copping the plea in this morning's Tribune: When a news story omits race, do we really know any less? Well, gosh yes, Mary! Where would the Lenard Clark beating by white thugs have gone without the sauce of race? Gee whiz.
As an editor pointed out when I asked about it, the crimes don't appear to be racially motivated. There's no sign the criminals picked victims because they were of a certain race. They picked them because they had certain stuff.
"People see it as a media conspiracy," he said of the decision to leave out their race. "It's a media quandary."
Here's the quandary, for editors, for cops, for all of us:
Race alone doesn't predict or explain behavior. Just because this mob was young and black hardly means that all young, black people in groups are a violent mob. Knowing the race of these attackers is no form of protection.
It is not a quandary for cops, Mary. They arrest people in the act of committing crimes, or via the eye-witness report of the victim. Leave the cops out of this. The Media have spun this - meme -"The rampant corruption, racism, and brutality of the Chicago Police have created this situation" Nope. Meme not working there, Mary.
Chicago's media is the Mickey D's of journalism with one or two exceptions. Blatant Sophistry is only one serving on the Political Correctness Nutritional Pyramid: Blatant Sophistry; Identity Politics; Group Think; and Secularism are the Four Food-for-Thoughtlessness Groups. At Mickey D's a tubby child can whale-out on Three Big Mac 'N Cheeses, Super-Sized Fries and a Mega Pop. In Chicago, one can read the Tribune, Sun Times, or watch Channels 2,5,7,9 and 11 and sate one's self with Noggin Larding news and opinion.
Flash Mobs are what Chicago paper hat journalists are calling squads of black kids doing a beat down on victims -usually 'goofy-looking' white folks, in the words of the early flash mob who nearly beat Ryan Rusch* to death at Beverly Park in 2007.
The Chicago Media helped create the climate, which I have called the Thug Comfort Zone in this blog, in which beneficiaries of 'identity/grievance/entitlement politics' feel very comfortable doing anything. Ironically, more black people have suffered to a greater degree than any other demographic. Black kids get shot, raped, beaten, set-afire, robbed, and force-fed insect repellent - anybody remember Ryan Harris and Little Girl X**? Thought not.
Instead, the Chicago media has done a rhetorical flash mob on law enforcement, the justice system, the courts and especially police officers as human beings.
Subsisting on a diet of BS is not good for people. Like Mickey D's gobblers, morbid obesity is the outcome - Fat Heads.
In 19th Century Chicago "footpads" were the flash mobs. They were gangs of jackrollers who beat and robbed victims. Back then the victims were drunks and fools wandering about the Levee. Today, a victim is usually . . .anybody. In the 19th Century, footpads were generally lazy, ignorant, unskilled, and savage wastes of DNA. Today, Chicago beat down artists ( Flash Mobbers)are identical to their Chicago antecedants. The only difference is that today, the PC Media interviews the mothers of the criminals for more heart-tugging BS calories.
There are BS free reporters and journalists. One of Chicago's best is Natasha Korecki who is so adept at fending off BS, that she covers the Blago Trial. Ms. Korecki is a solid reporter. She was a guest on WTTW's Weekin Review, last Friday.
Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun Times nearly had the panel on Chicago Week in Review hose capuccino through their schnozzes when she said that race was the key factor in the 'flash mob' phenomenon. Give it a look:
The diminutive eighth-grade student of St. John Fisher School had just left his cousin’s house and was walking through the park when the teens attacked him, hitting him on the head and kicking him. After Rusch fell, the teens continued to attack, leaving the bloodied Rusch in a seizure.
One of the juveniles later told police that they had attacked Rusch because he was a “goofy-looking white boy” – something that originally prompted police to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
**On January 9, Girl X was found raped, beaten and poisoned in the seventh-floor stairwell. She was unconscious and foaming at the mouth, her panties shoved down to her knees. Her T shirt had been used to strangle her, and gangster-style graffiti was scrawled on her abdomen in black ink. While the country focused on the case of another brutalized child--this one a privileged little beauty queen in Colorado--public outrage over the comatose Girl X was at first virtually nil.
0n a hot July afternoon in 1998 the mostly naked body of 11-year-old Ryan Harris was found in an isolated backyard in Englewood. She'd been missing for a day. Her face was battered and covered with blood, her mouth stuffed with a pair of underpants. A folded leaf was in each nostril.
Dad always said that I couldn't find my butt with both hands. I can. Allow me to add this imperative -“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you." - Pope Francis to celebrate Pro-life Mass, Vatican
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War
