It is the 'Morality' that Causes Chicago's Mortalities - Bikes, Crotch-Rockets, Guns, or 2 X 4's

Yingying Zhang was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when she disappeared June 9, 2017. | Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP

Morality -a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified person or society.

Idiot - is a person perceived to be lacking intelligence, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. 

Yesterday, the White House offered the only conclusive explanation for Chicago's murders, it's lawless disregard of people and it's perpetual state of moral paralysis.

WASHINGTON – Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Friday crime in Chicago was ‘driven more by morality” than access to guns, commenting after the Trump administration sent 20 more U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to the city to combat gun violence.

Those four words comprising the only government disambiguation over last ten years, immediately sparked more foolish from the media and it's nodding public.

• elako02Member1 hour(s) ago:And how knows more about morality than Trump and his aides?

• Dannoday1Member10 hour(s) ago: Immoral guns.

• 1Realistic1Visitor10 hour(s) ago: Morality?!? Sarah Huckabee Sanders has the gall to lecture on morality? The same Sarah Huckabee Sanders whose daddy, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, publicly defended Josh Duggar, the admitted child molester who fondled his own kid sisters?    She should check herself.

 Chicago Sun Times Obama Cheerleader Lynn Sweet was quick to pounce with Journo-perfect snark:

The extra agents were heralded by President Donald Trump in a Friday Twitter post.
“Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”
According to the Sun-Times’ count, even more people, 1,737, have been shot this year, 306 of them killed. This comes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been asking Trump to send in more federal help for six months.
Gun trafficking is a leading contributing factor in Chicago shootings. The Trump Justice Department created the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force to hunt down and prosecute firearms traffickers.
Sanders ( Sarah Huckabee-Sanders) at the White House briefing deflected a question about the link between guns and crime in Chicago even as more ATF agents were assigned to Chicago.
Asked if Chicago’s problems were due in part to access to firearms Sanders replied, “I think that the problem there is pretty clear that it’s a crime problem. I think that crime is probably driven more by morality than anything else.”

Sweet is sour on anything not torn from the John Dewey Pre-cast Policy Dispenser, used by the Presidential Bush Boys, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Guns Kill People -end of story.

However, two-thousand years plus of Western Civilization, from Genesis through Socrates and beyond Thomas Aquinas, argues that Guns Kill People, like Pencil Flunk Tests.

You will never find Pastor Pfleger leading Jesse Jackson and a dozen solemn faced martyrs in front of School R Us, because young Cuthbert and Amy continue to fail Common Core Math.

Think of that, children.

No.  Guns are to nodders, as Donald Trump is to nodders - a cardboard figure to be hated, reviled, destroyed.

People who have not the time, treasure and talents to be nodders, make informed judgments about actions and their results.  People kill people with guns, knives, bikes, crotch-rockets, sweat pants, chairs, pickle jars, umbrellas and 2 x 4s.  People kill people because they can.  Some people return to kill more people, because Judges, Sheriffs and States Attorneys need core voters.

Yesterday, a Chinese family learned the name of the person charged with abducting their beautiful and talented daughter from the streets around University of Illinois and possibly murdering the innocent. This poor baby.

The person charged is as brilliant as Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a professor like President Obama was and a man of science like Bill Nye, the Monsanto Guy.  Did he purchase a hand gun?

Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.
Federal authorities say 27-year-old Brendt Christensen of Champaign, Illinois, is accused of kidnapping Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video show her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.   The affidavit filed in federal court in support of the complaint says Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang. Authorities say based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.
Authorities have not indicated if a body has been found.

Was a gun involved?

We do not know, as yet. What we do know at this time is that Brendt Christensen's cell phone is described as "a means, a facility and instrumentality of Interstate Commerce" and, " therefore, used in committing and in futherance of the commission of this crime."

A cell phone - smart phone no doubt.

I anguish over the abduction of this little girl. Yingying is my youngest daughter's age.  I anguish and pray for the Zhang family.

I shudder at the accused.  I shudder, because he is someone's child and he is the same age as my son.  My son had no use for school, other than what shaped him ( sports, buddies, shared obligations, religious center) as an honest, thoughtful, courageous and courteous gentleman.  This accused son of someone reaped academic honors and developed into a monster, or so it seems. A brilliant idiot.
Brendt Christensen - the accused

Guns and bullets might surface, but I kind of doubt that - the monster a man of science and hubris and consider himself the superior of his victim, or so it seems to me.  Like the killers of Bobby Franks at the University of Chicago in the 1920's, the Democratic Precinct Captain and Clown who slaughtered Gay, Bisexual and Questioning boys in the 1970's, or superior-quality strapped thugs who shot up an end-of-school picnic last month, Brandt Christensen felt comfortable doing what he did.

This is what we do!  

That is the idiot's Rebel yell!  When a person is the center of the universe and not gifted with other-directed thoughts, that person will roller-blade, skate-board, run, bike, or motor through other people and shout "This is What We Do!"

Not all idiots are strapped - armed with a 9mm -but all idiots are ballistically lethal. Here is a video of Chicago values aboard expensive crotch rockets ( The Ducati 999, Suzuki GSXR1000 and Yamaha YZF-R1 are good examples of ~1000cc crotch-rockets.) 'doing what they do'






The action occurred on Irving Park Road near O'Hare International Airport.  Imagine what would  have happened to the police officers interdicting "This is What We Do!" had there been a collision.

I imagine that they would appear before a Grand Jury, once the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times rolled out a series on police pursuit policies and Rahm squeaked, " The streets belong to all of us!"

Retired Chicago Police officer Larry Casey offered me this look at the ballistic idiots and the website that seems to defend their actions.

Morality is a state of being and it includes immorality as accepted.

Idiots grow in an immoral society.  No moral society Balkanizes behavior.  Chicago Values do that. 

Hey, Just Thought I'd Mention it, but WE have the 4th of July Coming Up!

Father, we beg Your blessing for the Right to Life, the Unborn, the weak, the sick and the old; all who are finding themselves being targets of the vicious culture of death; that our Lord Jesus bless and protect all who stand up for the Christian dignity of persons. That God enlighten those who are traveling down death's highway by their involvement, in any way, with either the contemporary death culture, selfism, relativeism, or any of the new age errors of our times, that God envelop our culture with His Divine protection and help us both individually and as a nation to true enlightenment, conversion and repentance of our selves and our culture. Help us to turn from our national sin of abortion, and return to, and once again become a Christian nation, on the narrow road, that is, the path to becoming a nation and culture, under God. Amen.

I went to St. John Fisher this morning to receive the Eucharist, because I believe that Christ is physically present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity and not just a nice memorial of the last supper.  I am free to do that and to believe the Nicene Creed.

I try and do this daily, because it helps me remember to listen to the positive voice of Christ, His Mother and the Holy Spirit, and ignore the more glamorous, easy and sexy whispers of Satan.

I danced more than a few jigs with Devil in my life and it never worked our real good for me, my family and people who come in contact with me.

I am free to do that because people who had absolutely no truck with my religion, put their own lives in hazard to give me liberty to believe, think and act in the best interests of my immortal soul. Two hundred and forty one years ago, the Deists, Congregationalists, High Church Anglicans, Quakers and Mennonites*, with a courtly nod to the few Jews and Papists of the colonies, gambled their lives, fortunes and reputations to Declare Liberty for All.

Thank you, Gents.


Faiths of Our Founding Fathers:

Religious Affiliation  Total  Percenatge
Episcopalian/Anglican 32 57.1%
Congregationalist         13 23.2%
Presbyterian                 12 21.4%
Quaker                          2 3.6%
Unitarian or Universalist 2 3.6%
Catholic                          1 1.8%
TOTAL 56 100%

Name of Signer State Religious Affiliation
Charles Carroll Maryland Catholic
Samuel Huntington Connecticut Congregationalist
Roger Sherman Connecticut Congregationalist
William Williams Connecticut Congregationalist
Oliver Wolcott Connecticut Congregationalist
Lyman Hall Georgia Congregationalist
Samuel Adams Massachusetts Congregationalist
John Hancock Massachusetts Congregationalist
Josiah Bartlett New Hampshire Congregationalist
William Whipple New Hampshire Congregationalist
William Ellery Rhode Island Congregationalist
John Adams Massachusetts Congregationalist; Unitarian
Robert Treat Paine Massachusetts Congregationalist; Unitarian
George Walton Georgia Episcopalian
John Penn North Carolina Episcopalian
George Ross Pennsylvania Episcopalian
Thomas Heyward Jr. South Carolina Episcopalian
Thomas Lynch Jr. South Carolina Episcopalian
Arthur Middleton South Carolina Episcopalian
Edward Rutledge South Carolina Episcopalian
Francis Lightfoot Lee Virginia Episcopalian
Richard Henry Lee  Virginia Episcopalian
George Read Delaware Episcopalian
Caesar Rodney Delaware Episcopalian
Samuel Chase Maryland Episcopalian
William Paca Maryland Episcopalian
Thomas Stone Maryland Episcopalian
Elbridge Gerry Massachusetts Episcopalian
Francis Hopkinson New Jersey Episcopalian
Francis Lewis New York Episcopalian
Lewis Morris New York Episcopalian
William Hooper North Carolina Episcopalian
Robert Morris Pennsylvania Episcopalian
John Morton Pennsylvania Episcopalian
Stephen Hopkins Rhode Island Episcopalian
Carter Braxton Virginia Episcopalian
Benjamin Harrison Virginia Episcopalian
Thomas Nelson Jr. Virginia Episcopalian
George Wythe Virginia Episcopalian
Thomas Jefferson Virginia Episcopalian (Deist)
Benjamin Franklin Pennsylvania Episcopalian (Deist)
Button Gwinnett Georgia Episcopalian; Congregationalist
James Wilson Pennsylvania Episcopalian; Presbyterian
Joseph Hewes North Carolina Quaker, Episcopalian
George Clymer Pennsylvania Quaker, Episcopalian
Thomas McKean Delaware Presbyterian
Matthew Thornton New Hampshire Presbyterian
Abraham Clark New Jersey Presbyterian
John Hart New Jersey Presbyterian
Richard Stockton New Jersey Presbyterian
John Witherspoon New Jersey Presbyterian
William Floyd New York Presbyterian
Philip Livingston New York Presbyterian
James Smith Pennsylvania Presbyterian
George Taylor Pennsylvania Presbyterian
Benjamin Rush Pennsylvania Presbyterian

Star of David Offends Mainstream Inclusive Exclusive LGBTQI & Etc. Community?

Navy chaplain Lt. Roland Gittelsohn was the first Jewish chaplain to serve in the Marine Corps and deployed with the 5th Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima. That Star of David did not seem to upset too many there. 

“An Anglo-Saxon, Hinnissy, is a German that's forgot who was his parents. They're a lot iv thim in this counthry. There must be as manny as two in Boston: they'se wan up in Maine, an' another lives at Bogg's Ferry in New York State, an' dhrives a milk wagon. Mack is an Anglo-Saxon. His folks come fr'm th' County Armagh, an' their naytional Anglo-Saxon hymn is 'O'Donnell Aboo.' Teddy Rosenfelt is another Anglo-Saxon. An' I'm an Anglo-Saxon. I'm wan iv th' hottest Anglo-Saxons that iver come out iv Anglo-Saxony. Th' name iv Dooley has been th' proudest Anglo-Saxon name in th' County Roscommon f'r many years. "Schwartzmeister” ― Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War



No persecuted people is as happy as at that magic moment when they can begin to persecute other people.

Back at the turn of the 1970's, I belonged to an amalgamation of south side manhood.  He got a charter and called ourselves The SMC - Southwest Men's Club.  We rented a saloon at 3657 S. Hoyne Street, right across from McKinley Park and within walking distance of Bingo John Fary's saloon on Damen.

It was swell.  The SMC was dedicated to  helping our fellow man with food drives, playing softball and drinking beer on the cheap.

At our first meeting we discussed by-laws and operations. There were about thirty of us - Polish, Lithuanian, Irish, Italian and a couple of Mexican lads.  One guy wanted to have some sort of initiation rite to inflict upon new members.

President ( the late)  Thomas McBennett asked, " Were you initiated?"

" No, but it would be great to have new members do all sorts of humiliating things to get in and . . ."

McBennett hit the gavel, " I call for vote!  All in favor of kicking this asshole out of the SMC say 'Aye!'

It was unanimous!

We did not consider ourselves exclusive; yet, this mope managed it.

Everyone has a right to exclude, so says one of the most self-proclaiming "Inclusive" communities - the LGBTQI & etc. Community.


The Community is offended by the Star of David.  The Star of David

One Dyke March collective member, asked by Windy City Times for a response, said the women were told to leave because the flags "made people feel unsafe," that the march was "anti-Zionist" and "pro-Palestinian."
"They were telling me to leave because my flag was a trigger to people that they found offensive," Grauer said. "Prior to this [march] I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me."
Another of those individuals asked to leave was an Iranian Jew Eleanor Shoshany-Anderson.
"I was here as a proud Jew in all of my identities," Shoshany-Anderson asserted. "The Dyke March is supposed to be intersectional. I don't know why my identity is excluded from that. I fell that, as a Jew, I am not welcome here."

Does the Cross offend?  I guess it must.  Anything else is Okay under Rainbow. I do not understand "inclusive" people - they get offended by people so easily.  I live in Morgan Park which our idiotic and race-divisive media insist upon calling a close-knit community, which is PC code for not-inclusive, bigoted, hateful, really, really, really mean and sarcastic. Well, hush my mouth.

The Star of David, like the Cross, recognizes God.  Perhaps that is the source of the contretemps. God became dispensible once the Pat Quinn's ink dried on Greg Harris' Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Bill on Movember 20, 2013 and paved the way for Illinois lawsuits against God-people who wouldn't bake cakes or rent hall,  but make really tasty boneless deep fried chicken. 

I believe that Chick fil A was boon to Greg Harris' legislation, underwritten by Fred Eychaner and Henry Van Amerigen.  Only months after the Chick fil A's two months hate, dopey old Pat dragged out Lincolns secretary desk for the historic signing away of traditional marriage and mainstreaming the LGB community that soon appropriated a T and a Q.

Let's not forget that Gay Liberation Movement was locked arm-in-arm with the Palestinian Movement. Here in Chicago, Gay Liberationists Andy Thayer and Kevin Clark made frequent assaults on Israel and those Star of David people, as well as W. and Cardinal George.

As it is Queer Dykes were told to take a hike from the Dyke March Collective. Star of David is offensive to "inclusive" mainstream victims.

Shucks, even the Black Gangster Disciples revere the Hexagon.  Let's here more about the Rainbow. 

Welcome to Foxx's Rooster Coop, Where the Roosters Spit Hockers

Minor Offenses.

Taking the last cold beer in the icebox, or that slice of pizza?

Nah. Those transgressions might get a raised eye brow, or a verbal rebuke, but here are some things one might do in order to find oneself before Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas.

• Retail Theft
• Minor Drug Offences
• Mental health-related charges
• Simple Assault
• Indecent Exposure
• Prostitution
• Drug Possession
• Drug Sale
• Criminal Damage to Property

Minor things. 

Poor folks no longer worry about getting up the cash to bond out before court date, because Cook County Government President Toni Preckwinkle, Sheriff Tom Dart and States Attorney Kim Foxx are all about Prison/Jail/Detention/Correction Reform.

Good news!!! You can now expedite the bonding process by emailing ccso.bonds@cookcountyil.gov before you come to the CCDOC. When we receive the email, we will begin getting the release paperwork together, which could cut down on your wait time. Your email must include the following:

That means, not holding people charged with Minor Offences in Cook County Jail.  People like gentle giant and Lynnwood resident Christian Brown, 23.

Brown, 23, of south suburban Lynwood, was up for a minor offense in the Leighton Criminal Courts Building on Saturday afternoon before Judge Peggy Chiampas when she handed down an I-bond, or signature bond, by which the defendant isn’t required to post cash for release, according to several people present during the hearing.
 Witnesses said Brown then spat at the veteran judge, striking one of her arms and her black robe. Some of those present for the incident wondered whether Brown knew that he would have been released without posting bond.
Before Brown was hustled out of the courtroom by deputies, Chiampas held him in direct contempt of court and ordered him held in Cook County Jail for 30 days. She initially ordered him held for 30 months but said she misspoke and corrected her previous order. Chiampas *did note that she could have had Brown jailed for six months but opted not to.

Mr. Brown spit at the Judge, when he was asked if he understood that the Cook County I-Bond insured that he would waltz out of the Leighton Criminal Courts Building and onto the pavement on California Avenue - guilty as hell and free as a bird.  

Well, not quite. And there's pizza!

Guilty as hell, free as a bird.

That is a paraphrase from Old Bill Ayers and his Old Lady, one of the master switches in turning our Justice System into the one where Minor Offenders like Christian Brown can spit on a Judge doing him a solid.

The above referenced news article from the Chicago Tribune does not explain exactly what 'Minor Offence' had been the cause of Mr. Brown's visit to the Leighton Criminal Courts Building.  However, Mr. Brown's new status as a guest of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is for Criminal Contempt. 

Kim Foxx is all about criminal contempt or Justice.

Minor Offence

One wonders how much saliva will be needed to splatter to keep Cook County Offenders from spilling even more blood into our streets.  As Fats Waller said, "One never knows, do one?"

Judge Chiampas is a hero of the American judiciary.

Boy, That Trump ? Huh? The Cheerleaders Are in a Snit.

Heidi Stevens is in a snit. That Mr. Trump has really gone and done it.  Once again, the Orange Man has insulted the Banana Republic on Lake Michigan, its Mayor, its County Government, Ja'mal Green, Pastor Pfleger, Eric Zorn, Cardinal Cupich, Neil Steinberg, WTTW, the afflicted, the non-Heterosexual, the non-Caucasian, the un-legal Dreamers, the non-Biking Divvy mockers, Weiners Circle Hotdogs and Brendan Reilly.

Do not get the cheerleaders upset, Dude!

Trump had the audacity to Hope to say,      "What the hell is going on in Chicago?"

No, he didn't! He did. He went there. Now, he got this right back in his face!

Trump has asked the same question before, and he's not alone in wondering. I get the same question from friends and family who don't live here. (And a few who do.)

What's happening in Chicago is this:

• The Grant Park Music Festival just got underway, which marks another year of free, world-class music under a Frank Gehry-designed open air pavilion where friends share a bottle of wine, couples enjoy a picnic and kids twirl around on the grass, shoulder-to-shoulder, like we do things in the city.

• New artwork is popping up along our stunning lakefront bike trail. (Our mayor named 2017 the year of public art.)

• Chicago Public Schools just let out, so some of its almost 400,000 students are flooding our enviable parks and playgrounds*.

• The Cubs are losing again. Chicago Pride Fest is this weekend.

Now, take that, Mr. Orange-hair, size 38 and up pants wearing Mr. Guy!

Heidi Stevens grew up in Chicago's suburbs,  like Chicago's Mayor and most of Chicago's columnists and TV anchors, so she knows this city on-the-take like one of Nels Algren's poker pals - warts and all, she knows this city.  Sure, we have grade school kids gunned down at end of school parties, but we have tender-hearted and caring Chicago values folks who know that thousands of the people of color are being tortured at this very minute in Homan Square and are not terribly concerned that Ja'mal Green and Forrest Claypool feed off of Chicago's dying husk.

And we have a devastating level of gun violence, which is what Trump and others are really asking about. It's a scourge on our city.

• New artwork is popping up along our stunning lakefront bike trail. (Our mayor named 2017 the year of public art.)
• Chicago Public Schools just let out, so some of its almost 400,000 students are flooding our enviable parks and playgrounds.
• The Cubs are losing again. Chicago Pride Fest is this weekend.

And we have a devastating level of gun violence, which is what Trump and others are really asking about. It's a scourge on our city.

So what? Other cities are worse, says Heidi.

• Chicago isn't even close to the deadliest city in the United States. On a per-capita basis, according to The Trace, Chicago isn't even in the top 10. New Orleans, Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis, Oakland, Cincinnati, Miami, Philadelphia — they've all got us beat.

• That makes the deaths here no more palatable and no less urgent. But Chicago is America writ small.

• Our gun violence, our racial tensions, our education funding, our income disparity, our aging infrastructure, our efforts, however clumsy, to coexist with people who don't look like us, worship like us, speak like us, live like us — none of it is unique to Chicago.

• We're grappling with it all in 237 square miles. America's grappling with it in 3 million or so. Not in every city and town, but in plenty.
• It benefits no one to divide and polarize us. We're all Americans.

• If you want to know what the hell's going on here, swing by for a visit. On any given day, it's a beautiful, messy, breathtaking display of humanity's best and worst.

• Just like America.

 So, there.

Here's what's happening in Chicago, Mr. Tangerine Mean CNN Andy Cooper Pooper President:

• Rahm Closes Ohio Street Underpass and Ignores Questions ( Because of Hi-Jinks on the Beach)
• Rahm and Rauner Fail
• Pop Taxed
• Chicago Black Flight
• Tiger Woods Gets Land - In Your Face George Lucas-Hobson!
• Obama Library Will Close LSD

Speaking of the Arts!

•       Small Theaters Ban Theater Critics
•      Corey Feldman is Back!
•     Where to watch Ru Paul's Drag Race

So, we have that going for Chicago and the LGBTQ Community appropriated the letters  I.A, P & K ( and more!) *in celebration of Pride Week, which appropriated Pride and dropped the Gay, for some reason.

Chicago is a Banana Republic and Heidi Stevens, the Chicago Tribune, former President Barack Obama, the Resistance, Valerie Jarrett, Chicago City Council, Cook County Government and Hollywood are still upset because America is still not a Banana Republic. 

Here is the Butcher's Bill that helps pay for this secular, global urban Banana Republic: 

 June to Date

Shot & Killed: 55

Shot & Wounded: 223

Total Shot: 278

Total Homicides: 61

Week in Progress (6/18 – 6/24)

Shot & Killed: 10

Shot & Wounded: 47

Total Shot: 57

Total Homicides: 14

Year to Date

Shot & Killed: 292

Shot & Wounded: 1360

Total Shot: 1652

Total Homicides: 313

Tell Him, Heidi Stevens!

Take that President 1% Size 38" and Up pants, Iowa Rally Slap Chicago Guy!

*LGGBTQQIAAPPK? The categories of human sex and gender expression and identities they could represent is likely infinite. If that acronym looks a bit absurd, it speaks to the absurdity of thinking there are a few isolated “sexual minorities” while the rest of the human race is “normal” and fairly similar. The truth is the level of diversity in our sexual lives as human beings means we are all sexual minorities. As accepted and culturally understood identity categories continue to arise, this will become more and more apparent. Perhaps the “queer” community is, in fact, becoming more accurately described as the community of people who acknowledge the diversity of human sexual and gender expression and seek to be open to exploring that diversity within themselves and the culture at large.
Lyla Cicero has a doctorate in clinical psychology, and focuses on relationships, sexual minorities, and sex therapy. Lyla is a feminist, LGBTQIAPK-affirmative, sex-positive blogger at UnderCoverintheSuburbs.com, where she writes about expanding cultural notions of identity, especially those surrounding gender, sexual orientation, motherhood, and sexuality. Follow her on Twitter @UndrCvrNSuburbs.

The Feast of St. John Fisher - The Meaning of Faith and Courage

 

Where are now the kings and princes that once reigned over all the world, whose
glory and triumph were lifted up above the earth? Where are now the innumerable
company and power of Xerxes and Caesar? Where are the great victories of
Alexander and Pompey? Where are now the great riches of Croesus and Crassus? But
what shall we say of those who once were kings and governors of this realm?
Where are they now whom we have known and seen in our days in such great wealth
and glory that it was thought by many they would never have died, never have
been forgotten? They had all their pleasures at the full, both of delicious and
good fare, of hawking, hunting, also of excellent horses and stallions,
greyhounds and hounds for their entertainment, their palaces well and richly
furnished, strongholds and towns without number. They had a great plenty of gold
and silver, many servants, fine apparel for themselves and their lodgings. They
had the power of the law to proscribe, to punish, to exalt and set forward their
friends and loved ones, to put down and make low their enemies, and also to
punish by temporal death rebels and traitors. Every man held with them, all were
at their command. Every man was obedient to them, feared them, also honored and
praised them, everywhere now? Are they not gone and wasted like smoke? Of them
it is written in another place, mox ut honorificati fuerint et exaltati, dificientes quemadmodum fumus 
deficient (when they were in their utmost prosperity and fame, they soon
failed and came to nothing, even as smoke does) (Ps. 36:2). St. James compares
the vanity of this life to a vapor, and he says it shall perish and wither away
as a flower in the hay season. (James 4:15). St. John Fisher  Bishop of Rochester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (?1469); died 22 June, 1535.

St. Thomas More and Cardinal/Bishop John Fisher were both executed by lusty King Henry VIII of England. They were called traitors to the Crown, because they refused to go along with the King and agree that his divorce of Catherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn was justified and morally correct.

Henry was in love with Anne and the heart wants what the heart wants and being King allows the heart of the King to have his heart's desire, lust and inclination.  Henry VIII was first monarch of Europe to get on the right side of history.  The Paul Simon Institute would have presented polling figures to show that King Hal was right and that his divorce just could not wait - he had evolved.

Had there been a Chick-fil-Ay in Yorkshire the owners heads would be on a spike.  Anyone who refused to bake the newly legislated Royal Couple a cake would never worry about losing his hat - ever again.

Bishop John Fisher and Thomas More stood for traditional marriage and were on the wrong side of history - even their brother clerics went along. They were Catholics for Choice in marriage.

St. John Fisher went to the chopping block before Thomas More and set the great Humanist a tough example to follow.  The Man for All Seasons gets better press and media coverage than St. John Fisher, because Thomas More had secular friends and Europe loved his satirical treatise Utopia.

However, it seems to me that the Bishop of Rochester who alone made public his support for the cast-off Queen Catherine of Aragon and argued her case before all of the Bishops of England, took the much more perilous path to scaffold.  More kept silent.

Today, we feast a hero.  The core truth meant something and St. John Fisher, like Cardinal George in our times, was willing to stick to truth and accept the ridicule, mistreatment and derision of the public.

That is courage.

Happy Feast Day to my neighbors of St. John Fisher Parish!