I Am Not Deplorable; Off Putting, Maybe. I Vote Like Uncle Bud

Despite intense outcry from the medical community and reproductive rights advocates, Texas isn't budging on a proposed rule to require the cremation or burial of fetal remains. Texas Tribune

Texas reminds me of Uncle Bud!

My political hero was my uncle and the Hickey family patriarch after the death of my grandfather - Larry "Bud" Hickey. Bud was the oldest male child of Laurence and Nora Hickey -7535 S, Marshfield, Chicago Zone 20.  Bud's six brothers and six sisters were equally as centered as the white haired guy with a permanently ironic look of quizzical sarcasm.  Bud was white haired from his teens and when the draft started in 1941 before the war started, an old biddy remarked to Granny Hickey, " thank the Good Lord, your boy Larry is too old." He became a U.S. Army master sergeant (naturally) and fought in the Pacific.

Uncle Bud was the Chief Engineer for Cook County Hospital from the 1950's until the 1980's. He was then made the Chief Engineer of Cook County by George W. Dunne. Uncle Bud and his large family lived in Meyer Hall - the former Cook County Hospital Doctors Residence at Taylor and Wolcott -because Uncle Bud was on duty 24 hours a day. The great surgeon and former Director of Admissions for Loyola Medical School, the late Dr. James H. Kennedy,MD once told me that as young resident at CCH he told, "See the Medical Director, but, above all, pay attention to Larry Hickey."

When Abortion, got its bloody foot in the door of the American soul in the late 1960's, Progressive forces, like the bed bugs now scourging urban Americans, bullied politicians with Policy,  False. tickling Policy. In the late 1970's, Cook County purchased an incinerator for the sole purpose of burning aborted fetuses.

Uncle Bud installed the gas operated incinerator and welded its doors shut. No human beings would be burned in Bud's Cook County Hospital. The incinerator - it operated, but absolutely no babies were burned. The children would be buried with human dignity. You see, Uncle Bud was a Catholic, when that meant something, and Catholics, at that time, were prohibited from cremating the human body. All of that was parsed out by clerical Vatican II Cupcakes, don't you know.

News of this got out. The Policy hit the fan. Uncle Bud told Dunne, "Fire Me, but those doors stay welded shut."

George Dunne ended abortions at Cook County Hospital, except to save the life of the mother, because he agreed that Cook County Hospital had become no more than, in the Cook County President's own words, 'an Abortion Mill,*'

Uncle Bud and George Dunne were Democrats. both were 'retired.'  New Cook County President Dick Phelan bowed to Planned parenthood as Cook County President and the soul of the Democratic Party was sucked out of the husk of the automaton that knows only dollars and the brute exercise of monolithic political power.

Uncle Bud's story is from the late 1970's.  So I am deplorably old fashioned, or so Hillary remarked to Barbra Streisand and six figure ticket holders at recent HRC fund-raiser.

Deplorable ideas?  Abortion is evil, not health care.  That is a big one for me.

Deplorable taste? I never wore a Nehru jacket, a dickie, a turtle-neck, beret, Greek Fisherman's hat, Peace button, tattoo, ear ring, nose ring, shower ring, Leisure suit, or bell bottom anything. And I dated, married and date exquisite looking women.  Honor bright.  Don't know what's wrong with them, but I am happy about it.

 In fact, I wear pretty much the same style suits, shoes, shirts, sweaters and attitude, that I did in my formative 1960's wonder years and my public life as a teacher, husband, father and citizen.

I don't listen to Techno, Disco, Hip-Hop, Gangsta, Metal, or Adele. I love classical, Celtic (not the PBS crappola), Jazz, Garage band 60's rock, Outlaw Country, Mexican Campesino music, Polkas, Blue-grass and Motown almost as much as Keeley Smith, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Mel Torme and Marvin Gaye.

I can not stand when people who should know better sneer at working men and women during the very speech they are giving to bully up their votes. Happens every time a progressive Democrat and far too many Republicans un-zipper their teeth.

Principles matter.

I will vote the way Uncle Bud and my Dad would vote.

Texas is Ok and Uncle Bud would approve.

Religio Medici: Dr. James R. Kennedy M.D.at Home With Christ - Rest in Peace? That Will Be a Tough One.

I thank God, and with joy I mention it, I was never afraid of hell, nor ever grew pale at the description of that place. I have so fixed my contempla- tions on heaven, that I have almost forgot the idea of hell; and am afraid rather to lose the joys of the one, than endure the misery of the other: to be deprived of them is a perfect hell, and needs methinks no addition to complete our afflictions. That terrible term hath never detained me from sin, nor do I owe any good action to the name thereof. I fear God, yet am not afraid of him; his mercies make me ashamed of my sins, before his judgments afraid thereof: these are the forced and secondary method of his wisdom, which he useth but as the last remedy, and upon provocation;— a course rather to deter the wicked, than incite the virtuous to his worship. Religio Medici - Sir Thomas Browne 1635

 Dr. James R. Kennedy is an esteemed assistant professor of gross anatomy  at Loyola's Stritch School of Medicine. A retired surgeon, Kennedy is a 1960 graduate of the Stritch School of Medicine and has taught at the school since 1989. He has been on the medical staffs of St. Mary's Hospital and Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee and since 1989, has volunteered as a surgical consultant, medical student supervisor and physician recruiter for Loyola's cooperative program with St. Jude Hospital in the West Indies.  Loyola Stritch School of Medicine Award 2000

 Elizabeth “Betsy” Finneran Kennedy ’59SMC and Dr. James R. Kennedy ’57 of Kankakee, Illinois, will be presented the Rev. Louis J. Putz, CSC, Award. The Kennedys have established a well-baby clinic, a Montessori school, day care centers and youth swim teams for under-served families. They spent 10 years as medical missionaries in Saint Lucia, British West Indies, and provide service to the United Way, Kankakee Valley Theatre, Amateur Athletic Union, the American Cancer Society, Red Cross and the Diocese of Joliet. Notre Dame Distinguished Alumni Award 2005

Not even close. Neither will be this that follows.

The Gates of Heaven, if they ever really close, banged wide open yesterday when a soul left the body of a fine man in a hospice care center in Michigan City, Indiana, yesterday.

Dr. Jim Kennedy is a great man.  He grew up in Joliet, Illinois, the son of a lawyer for Greyhound Bus, who sent its fleet to the Jim Crow south to accommodate Freedom Riders and later U.S. Marshals. Jim Kennedy went to Notre Dame where he played football on the reserves under Terry Brennan and excelled as a student. More importantly, Kennedy wooed away the beautiful Betsy Finnerane of the Bronx, NYC who had been dating some poor schmo by the name of Phil Donahue, who ended up with a TV show of some kind.

 Graduating in 1957, Jim Kennedy was accepted to the Loyola University School of Medicine, where he took his Medical Doctorate and then residency at Cook County Hospital and managed to keep the arm of Betsy.  Kennedy was called into his country's service as Naval surgeon, serving with the Fleet Marine Force.

Now, it gets good,  Kennedy returned to Cook County Hospital and won the reputation as a great surgeon and general practice all purpose medicine man.  At Cook County Hospital Kennedy became friendly with the Chief Engineer and fierce defender of unborn Larry Hickey.  Bud Hickey ran all of the power plants and operations of this hospital and later butted heads with the Marxist Dr. Quentin Young over abortion.  Kennedy and Uncle Bud saw eye to eye on human life. Dr.Jim and Betsy Kennedy began their own Pro Life model in the 1960's by bringing eleven (11) beautiful, talented and much loved children into the world.


The Kankakee Kennedy's at Hoosier Hyannis Port ( Long Beach, IN - Stop 28) Even then the Chicago costs of living must have been epic; the Kennedy's moved to Kankakee, Illinois.



In 1975, I signed a contract with Father Ken Yarno, CSV to teach and coach at Bishop McNamara High School and among the freshmen students was Jim Kennedy,  a tow-head with great basketball chops and razor wit.   Dr. and Mrs, Kennedy liked what I was doing for their son.  We became friends.  Dr. and Betsy were everywhere.  Betsy could bury any NFL roster Endomorphs with her lightening pace and Mary Poppins work ethic in a week.  Doc worked two hospitals and on his days off he attended burn clinics.

I met my future bride when she was helping Betsy with the kids. Betsy shoved Mary Cleary under my nose at every opportunity, but I was serial dating at the time.  A year later, Mary's charms, grace and sarcasm and Betsy's raps on the back of my head -"What's wrong with you?" - took hold.

Mary's grandfather happened to be the first surgical patient Dr. Kennedy operated upon in St. Mary's Hospital. Oliver Duval was a epic-ly evil-eyed, mean old bastard of Frog Eater.  He had penchant for swallowing peaches whole, it seems, and the pits did no good to the Old French villain's GI tract. When young Dr. Kennedy, fresh from Cook County ER, was served up Oliver on gurney - the Herscher farmer pulled up his gown and emitted a fart of Gargantuan proportions in salutation - " How's Those Peaches, Irish?" They remained an emergency room Roland and Oliver with Oliver blowing the trumpet. " Here's another kiss for you Kennedy!"

Dr. Kennedy often walked to his rounds from his modest home in east Kankakee's St. Theresa's Parish to St. Mary's and even Riverside Hospital.  A solid stretch of the legs of three to four miles.  One evening following a shotgun duel in St. Anne, the ER at St. Mary's and attending physician were overwhelmed and panic set-in.  A nurse on duty that night told me that Dr. Kennedy appeared as if by magic and pulled everyone together and no one died. Deus ex Machina?  Nope. Dr. Kennedy.

My catalog of stories is as thick as a Calcutta phone book.  Dr. Kennedy supervised the care of my wife when she was stricken with brain cancer. Betsy and Doc never left our sides through the two years of agony. For that I am most thankful.

Dr. Jim Kennedy went home to heaven.  He trained two of my best pals, Dr. Rick Clark and Dr. Mark Manning, to be Kennedy-esque doctors- Rick is an Internal; Medicine Honcho at Resurrection in Chicago and Dr.Maj. Mark Manning, MD, USAF(ret.) maintains surgical practice in Del Rio, Texas and over the border. Dr. Kennedy admitted students to Loyola's Medical School when the ravages of Parkinson's Disease prevented a genius with scalpel from practicing his art.  Kennedy demanded that students admitted to Loyola Med have CVs that witnessed commitment to others.  " You maintained a 4.0 GPA from high school through college, but you never played a sport, performed in a band, acted in a play, volunteered to help the poor?  You will do fine at University of Chicago or Northwestern; best wishes for a great medical career."

That is the religion of a doctor - a Catholic Doctor.  Try and take it easy, Doc. I talked to Betsy this morning and she said for you skip morning rounds and sleep-in. 

Rally for Religious Liberty - Friday June 8th at Noon in Chicago's Federal Plaza

I participated in Chicago's Rally for Religious Freedom in March of this year.  It rained like a son-of-a-gun, but more than 2,000 people jammed Federal Plaza in a very peaceful, dignified and good humored show of support for Religious Freedom.

My family spent decades pounding the sidewalks for workers rights.  Early on we were all taught to never cross a picket line - we never did. If a store was struck by real labor, we purchased else-where.  My father and his brothers and my cousins, picketed in support of the printers at the Chicago Tribune.

Likewise, we hit the kneelers in church to pray for aborted children.  My uncle Larry Hickey, who was the Chief Engineer for Cook County Hospital,  made national news (AP Chicago 1975 linked below).    Uncle Bud was ordered to install crematory furnace for the disposal of unclaimed and unidentified bodies from the County Morgue, but primarily aborted fetuses.  The crematory furnace was not fired for five years, because the Chief refused to dispose of human remains. This was in February of 1975.

I started teaching in Catholic schools in 1975.  Roe v. Wade was giving the abortion industry its baby steps and the American media its universal assistance.  Democrat politicians who happened to be Catholic were not yet fully bought by Planned Parenthood's dead-baby bucks.   George Dunne, President of the Cook County Board, never fired Uncle Bud for the Chief's Civil Disobedience; in fact, Dunne made Larry Hickey the Chief Engineer of Cook County.  That was then;this is now.

Now, Democrat politicians who happened to baptized as Catholics would see a Larry Hickey become an occupant of Cook County Jail, after firing, convicting, sentencing and stripping him of pension, of course.

There are no Democrat George Dunnes.  In fact the last genuine Catholic Democrat that I can recall in recent years, resigned as State Representative - Kevin Joyce. Rep. Dan Lipinski might be. There are Dick Durbins, Dan Hynes, Pat Quinns, Mike Quigleys and Rich Daleys.  They and Planned Parenthood, SEIU and other left-leaning PACs put Barack H. Obama in the White House

President Obama stripped St. Xavier University of its religious identity and immediately the school invited former Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs to be a guest speaker.  Governor Pat Quinn revealed his complete submission to Illinois Personal PAC's Terry Cosgrove, over Francis Cardinal George all through the fall of 2011. Cosgrove orders and Quinn jumps.

In January 2011, President Obama's baptized Catholic HHS Secretary made official war on the American Catholic Church.

So, on Friday June 8th, I'll be in Federal Plaza with thousands of Catholics, Protestants and Jews voicing support for Religious Liberty. I hope that you will also enjoy the fresh air and great company.

Rally for Religious Freedom

Uncle Bud's ( Larry Hickey Chief Engineer Cook County Hospital) saga linked here:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19750222&id=QpxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2606,5132451