Immigration Reform is the ugliest blood sport, at the moment. Fences and borders and tons of Hey What About ALL those . . . stories are bandied about as 40 Watt intellects mimick their favorite Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Barry Manilow keening - I just threw in Barry for giggle. My thoughts are these:
This ain't no photo-op shot taken by Karl Rove's Boys and Girls - This guy is the real deal!
The name of the man in the center of the old newsprint cartoon is Terrence Powderly -Powderly started the America Labor Movement. You will not read about him or hear of him too much these days. He understood the difference between being an employee and being a Scab. Ironically, enough Powderly's position always was to help move workers into the American Middle Class. Move them to skilled trades and more wages and benefits. Labor gave America the Standard of Living that it had enjoyed and is now being taxed and co-opted out of existence by radicals.
On April 5, 2007 Chicago Sun Times Columnist Lynn Sweet proposed that Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley, who recently was elected by an overwhelming percentage to the Office of Mayor and has enjoyed his victory with a daily litany of howls and attacks on him and his management of Chicago in the Chicago media, chat it up with SEIU leader Andy Stern.
Fair Enough. The Mayor of Big Shoulders should be able to take any criticism to heart and to head. The Mayor should set his own appointments. The same critics want the Mayor to have a sit-down with Andy Stern of Services Employee International Union - the man most responsible for organizing no skill, low skill and public salaried workers.
Andy Stern - according to the media - is an innovative thinker - he thinks outside of box.' He organized the Big Box Ordinance drive that is helping to marginalize the influence of real labor. Denny Gannon, a skilled tradesman, has been put in the unenviable position of 'working with' Andy Stern:
Lynn Sweet wrote, 'Stern, like Daley, is practical and just want to gets things done. '
And then argued for Daley to go along with the Mayors of these Cities - Rubber Stamp?
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa knows Stern. So does Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, Mayor Bill White of Houston and Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco. After the runoffs -- no matter the outcomes -- Daley and Stern, if they sat down, would find they share a goal of building a better Chicago' ( Sweet April 5, 2007)
Just because these Mayors drank the Kool-Aid does not mean the Mayor of Chicago should. Chicago still has a significant middle class population - Andy Stern will do away with that and Real Labor will continue to become marginalized politically and organizationally. They have become timid around Purple Andy. The media loves the guy! They have not proven to be too pro labor: Printers Strike at the Tribune; Slams at the Trades Unions are a regular feature in the media.
Labor unions grow strong through the organization of dues paying skilled workers: carpenters, pipefitters, electricians, engineers. People who build and maintain things are paid a good wage because of collective bargaining - not raising taxes on the very Union Women and Men SEIU purports to share Brotherhood. The building of the American Middle Class was Labor's great victory. Labor now appears to be commiting a Jonestown on itself with Andy Stern providing the Purple Kool Aid.
Andy Stern, a Unversity of Pennsylvannia trained Social Worker, is a radical who along with David Wilhelm of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Workers of Las Vegas worked very hard to organize low, low, low wage workers and to capitalize on their conditions with solid Leftist rhetoric. Their goal is not to bargain wage increases for the rank and file and improve their benefits but exact political punishment on elected officials and effect Redistribution of Wealth. The Rich will not be touched by the chipping away of the American Standard of Living, but the middle class - the skilled Union members and their extended families - will disappear.
The Big Box Ordinance was a disaster. It ain't done yet. Lynn Sweet, evidently a huge fan of Andy Stern's radical attempt to whittle away at the standard of living enjoyed by the middle class in Illinois , wants Daley to smoke the pipe with Andy:
SEIU is the second largest tax-payer salaried 'union' in the country with more than 850,000 public service employees.
SEIU does not operate to improve the lives of its membership but to engage in political monster apparitions and threaten elected candidates to 'go along' with them.
SEIU engages in radical redistribution of wealth strategies that force an increase in government ( tax-payer funded) salaries and thus create a greater burden on the middle class - especially real labor unions: the skilled trades unions.
SEIU swells like a tick with its membership drives targeting no-skill, low skill, and tax-paid employees. Membership dues are or were the life's blood of a strong labor force in America. SEIU fights to push for minimum wage increases - but a significant sum of that wage increase will come from taxpayers. SEIU is a great threat to the American Labor Movement that created the American Standard of Living - a middle class standard of living.
SEIU's redistribution of wealth will not chip away at America's rich but it will evaporate the American middle class and that , it seems is it's goal.
Mayor Daley, you do not need friends like Andy Stern; neither did Denny Gannon, nor John Sweeney nor the hundreds of thousands of immigrants, working poor, and unskilled minimum wage earners who wear those Purple T-shirts.
Workers Beware! They're Shearing sheep as big as whales!
My novel The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel Guam in Time of War concerns the liberation of Guam in World War II and fuses Chicago and Guam history.
The title comes from a place where hundreds of American teenagers died in July 1944 and an antique revolver. The revolver is not that important, but Chorito Cliff was and is to a generation of men and women who are disappearing at too great a rate.
Chorito is the name of a cliff overlooking the Asan beaches on Guam. In 1944, the 3rd Marines assaulted Chorito Cliff and Bundeschu Ridge. A Hog Leg is the nickname for an 1860 Colt .45 Revolver.
While working on the Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story, I was struck by how many members of the Leo Class of 1943 served in the Marine Corps and also in the Guam Campaign. Likewise, it struck me that almost nowhere in popular culture has room enough been made for the most loyal Americans - the People of Guam - The Chamorros. I started doing some homework and the result is a historical novel in two parts. Part One covers the time of April 1944 to August 10, 1944 and introduces some of the fictional and historical characters who figure in this work.
Within the carnage of battle is a war pitting a young man, Tim Cullen Leo High School '43, against his battalion commander over the possession of an 1860 Army Colt .45 Hog leg revolver which can be traced back to Capt. Myles Keogh who died with Custer. The last owner is the doomed Lt. Jack Buck of Giddings, TX. Buck will be killed in the taking of Bundeschu Ridge, but Jack Buck had exacted a promise from Pvt. Tim Cullen of his platoon to keep it from the hands of Major Lucas Opley, an up from the ranks Marine of legend, and return the Colt to his family in Texas.This story also brings in life in Chicago's south side, in particular the people who lived along 79th Street in the 1940's.
Historical personages like some of the great men of Leo High School,Lyndon Johnson, General Roy Geiger, Col. Red Mike Edson, Father Jesus Duenas, Radioman Paul Newman, Ensign Johnny Carson, Edward J. 'Spike' O'Donnell, Mayor Ed Kelly and Brother Francis Finch mingle with fictional characters Tim Cullen, Billy Higgins, Lucas Opley, Dr. Ted Tanaka and Betty Cruz. Life in St. Sabina's Parish and along 79th Street in Chicago is recreated to the best of my powers. My narrative is the intrusive narrator that was used to offer commentary on the action and infuse a moral tone. At the outset, I wish to apologize for any typos that sneaked past my tired old eyes - placing an 'and' where I mean to place ad 'an' - writers are not the best editors.
The story is about a young man who developed a sharp moral sense in his neighborhood and a devotion to his word to others - fashioned in the pews of St. Sabina Church, the halls of Leo High School, the playing surface of Shewbridge Field and along 79th Street. Cullen's values and sense of honor is tested by circumstances and the hidden agenda of an otherwise good man, Maj. Lucas Opley.
Parallel to Cullen’s ordeals with the 3rd Marines and suffering on Japanese occupied Guam are movie house operator Juan Cruz and his family, as well as an exiled Japanese American Dentist and his movie star wife. Exacting the cruelty is the oafish Boson Otayama and the American educated Lt. Kato. Awaiting liberation are also such historical figures of Guam’s history as Father Duenas and Pastor Sablan who heroically protected American George Tweed from the Japanese for two years.
The touchstone Hog-leg revolver, in its shoulder holster, will be taken from Lt. John A. Buck’s body by Cullen at an aid station on Guam’s Red Beach 2 and cause Cullen no end of problems. The Battalion commander wants the Colt Hog-leg. Cullen hangs on to the weapon but never uses it and is repeatedly ordered by Maj. Opley to hand it over. Opley wants it for himself. This through-the ranks career officer will undo himself through his own devices and be sent home under a cloud after years of service to the Corps after the Guam Campaign.
In the Fall of 2007, the second book of The Chorito Hog Leg story will follow the adventures of Tim Cullen through the mopping-up actions on Guam, the Iwo Jima Campaign, the sinking of U.S.S. Indianapolis, the Atomic Bombings of Japan, the beginning of the War Crimes Trials on Guam and return Cullen, through the great Pacific Typhoon of 1945, to Chicago. Again, the author will employ the ‘intrusive narrator’ technique used by William Makepeace Thackeray in his 19th Century historical fictions.
I hope that I do some justice to the generation who served in World War II and to the great people of Guam.
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~44494.aspx
Chicago has never recovered from the Meatpackers Strike of 1904. Though engulfed by flames in 1871, Chicago rose from its roots again like an oak forest on steroids. The Pullman Strike, put down by George Custer's replacements, Illinois Yellow-legs and Pinckerton's goons, was as nothing compared to what lay ahead on the tracks.
Chicago's steel tentacles pulled cattle, hogs, sheep and any other hooved hide that could be tanned, eaten, rendered or husbanded to a vast yard owned by sharp men of business. The amalgamation of tanners, packers, renderers, and shippers had cheap, disorganized and willing pool of people to labor, bleed, and exploit - Czech, Irish, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Westphalian, Belgian, Prussian, Bavarian, Norwegian, and Swedish.
Some of those immigrants had skills as carpenters, millwrights, metal workers, coopers, cartwrights, and teamsters; most had no skills other than brute strength. Today they would be called Caucasian, though very few had passed through Caucases to get to America.
On July 12, 1904, a strike was called by the Almagamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen (AMC) whose President Michael Donnelly announced the strike.
The causes of the strike ranged from low wages to the excessive pace required while on the job. The strike lasted for nearly two months and included rioting and murder with few periods of peace. The strikers used tactics such as demonstrations and parades while the packers responded by hiring strikebreakers. Although factory conditions were unchanged, the strike had many far reaching effects on the city of Chicago, the union, and the nation as a whole. . . . The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen played a major role in the strike. It was a giant organization and employed both skilled and unskilled workers, a circumstance often resented by skilled workers.(Halpern 32) Though unity was not one of the union's strong points, the union did give workers some sense of it, which was vital when the strike finally began. The main protagonists of the strike were the common laborers, the skilled and unskilled butchers of the Chicago packing plants. The workers, now somewhat organized, demanded higher pay and an end to the relentless "speeding up" of the packing progress. The typical laborer at the time of the strike was foreign, unskilled, worked long, hard hours, and was paid less than twenty cents an hour. The strikers were also very violent which resulted in numerous murders and riots. ("Strikers Firm" 2)
The murders and riots were in reaction to the bringing of strikebreakers, most African Americans from the South and hired goons to agitate and incite viollence. Chicago Tribune archived articles from the period of the strike - roughly July through September 1904 bear witness to the actions and motives behind those acts.
The violence brought home to the heart of readers the intense frustration felt by the strikers and their families and the malice and greed that Chicago's leading families were willing to orchestrate in the name of profit. 8,750 strikebreakers, mostly miserably poor blacks, were lured with promises of a better life in Chicago and train fare to this abatoir of the human heart. Strikers and their families were in fact starving despite the effort of Strike relief Committes and the sympathy for strikers crossed state lines. However, the need to feed the greed was greater than articulating an agreement with the AMC. The owners intended to break this strike and they succeeded.
After a unanimous vote to maintain the strike, AMC President Michael Donnelly announced the strike ended on Sept. 9 1905 - 59 days after the strike was called.
The resulting antipathy between multi-cultural,lingual, and religious Caucasians and the strikebreaking African Americans would play out for next one hundred and two years in Chicago. The nature of race relations would always be reduced to the simple 'color of a man's skin' equation by people with the luxury of not being close to the conflict.
The descendants of the strikers would recoil from relations with the people who came North in the hope of a better life. They were shoved into combat with people themselves the victims of exploitation and those who profited by that combat. Those same descendants, one hundred and two years later, contine to be at odds with one another. The strikers descendants moved away as the Black Belt expanded to Berwyn, Cicero, Maywood and the southwest sides - places that since the 1904 strike have been branded as single-mindedly racist, unlike neighborhoods far removed from killing floors on the south side. The Armours and the Swifts and their co-industrialists did well by the strike and became clean with wealth, while the strikers and the strikebraekers were set at odds with one another and continue to be.
The horrific race riots of 1919 were confined to battlefields of Back of the Yards and the Black Belt. The fight for fair housing from the 1940's through the new Millenium mirror that combat zone. Dr. King marched in Marquette Park, where the descendants of the strikers lived and not in Highland Park where the people who prospered by that broken strike. Southside white ethnic neighborhoods continue to be referred to as 'racial hotbeds' as recently as last week in the Chicago media. Blacks continue to be pitted against ethnic whites and exploited for political and economic gain.
Maybe, some talk about the causes and consequences of the 1904 Meatpackers Strike should preclude any 'Let's talk Race' challenge.
Sources
Halpern, Rick. Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904 - 54. Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Strike is Ended; Men Surrender." Chicago Daily Tribune. 9 Sept. 1904
Tim King, former CEO of Hales Franciscan and founder and CEO of Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men-Englewood Campus set to open in fall 2006, states in a Chicago Tribune op-ed piece (May2, 2006) that 'It's time to set a new dinner table.' King , who left Hales Franciscan for ventures in philanthropy education and now Charter Education, wants African American fathers to sit down with their sons and 'show them an alternate future, one that includes hard work, being accountable and going to college.' He warns, 'Until we embrace this responsibility, they (African American Young Men) will continue to fail and so will we.' Riffing on this third and most important topic, the need to provide great black male role models for young men, King's dualism bashes 'bling with books; rims with reading; and chillin' with college.' King echoes what Hales Franciscan has argued since 1961 and Leo High School has been teaching since 1926. But allow me to articulate the core of the message.
Tim King stated earlier in his essay that he had learned the value of education at the dinner table from his entrepreneur father, lawyer uncle, and Georgetown University graduate older brother. Tim King went to Georgetown, law school, and started his own business. He'll be a great role model for the young men of Urban Prep Charter in Englewood. He has lived the lesson.
I have helped provide funding for Leo High School for the last eleven years. Leo High School, like Hales Franciscan is a Catholic college prep serving African American young men. I am not black; I am Irish American and so is my boss Bob Foster, Leo's President. Bob has been serving Leo High School as Principal and President since 1991 and has devoted most of his forty-four years in education to the boys at Leo. Like Bob Foster, I was a teacher and also the first member of my family to go to college. My County Kerry - born Grandfather and founder of the Engineer's Union always told me that I had better go to college or I'd starve to death. He was slighting my practical labor skills more than working on my self-esteem. Bob Foster's father and all of his older brothers were Chicago Police Officers. He too was the first in his family to finish college.
My dad was a blue color worker with three jobs, who had gone to war instead of college. In fact only one of my seven uncles went to college and only completed his degree before his death from cancer at 43 years of age. Like Tim King, our dinner conversation revolved around the subject of school, hard work, and meeting my responsibilities. The topic of college hung out in the ozone as a possibility merited by hard work, good luck, and God's intervention. Most important was the subject of responsibility - be on time and be prepared to work.
College Preparatory means just that - prepare for for college. Leo High School, like Hales Franciscan, has a remarkable record of sending young men on to some of the best colleges and universities in America. The lessons taught at Leo High School are these - be on time and be prepared to work. One young man, a 2000, graduate was accepted at six major universities: University of Illinois offered him the full-boat. Though a great athlete, this young Leo Man merited an Academic scholarship. Forsaking all offers of a college career for now, this Leo grad chose to apply for the Pipefitters Apprenticeship Program and was accepted. Unlike me, this young man had the aptitude for success in the trade, as well as books smarts. Not only that, this young man had an aptitude for meeting his responsibilities. The Director of the Apprenticeship Program, John Lean, reported to me that 'our guy' not only attended all of the required classes but showed up at the Pipefitters school on his days off - to bone - up on welding techniques.
Once in the trade and in the field, the poor guy was pulled this way and that way by contractors and superintendents wanting his skills, work ethic, and unfailing dedication. This black young man is making a great deal of money and enjoying a wealth of respect. He was prepared for college, but he excelled as a man.
I sit at the kitchen table with my son. We talk about his classes and his work in school. We talk about what is really important in life - be on time and be prepared to work. My son might go to college, but I pray that he is prepared to be a man. Hales Franciscan and Leo High School are two pretty good schools. They are Catholic schools, but most of the young men attending both are not necessarily Catholic themselves; they are all African American and they are all taught - be on time and be prepared to work.
Last Tuesday, The Daily Southtown printed an opinion piece by me asking Cardinal George to step in and help Queen of Peace Principal Patty Nolan Fitzgerald remain with her young women at the school and continue to make such a great impact on young lives. Mrs. Fitzgerald was dismissed last month by the Queen of Peace board of directors.
Ignoring the over-whelming support of students, staff, Alumnae and Catholics at large in the southland community, the board of director chose to play hard-ball: ignoring phone calls, e-mails, protests, and going so far as to order students and staff to cease and desist in this matter.
I have great personal and professional regard for Patty Nolan Fitzgerald. I wrote a very strong letter in order to get the Cardinal's attention, arguing that Illinois legislation creating ' a corporation sole' for the Chicago Archdiocese in the 1840's was enough of a hammer to make a difference. I went so far as to use the Cardinal's own words as leverage in the argument to make a phone call in Mrs. Fitzgerald's cause.
The fact of the matter is that the Archbishop of Chicago can not legally dictate to separate corporations calling themselves Catholic: Loyola University, DePaul University, Alexian Brothers Hospital and those schools operated under a corporate trusteeship like Queen of Peace( run by Carmelites, Augustinians, Jesuits, and the Sinsinawa Dominicans). The Cardinal can, and will admonish as Chicago's leading minister and priest.
On Friday night at about 6 P.M., Cardinal George called me at my home to discuss the matters facing Patty Nolan Fitzgerald, the young women of Queen of Peace, and all Catholics in our area so effected by the summary dismissal of a great Catholic educator.
We talked for a good twenty minutes and Cardinal George straightened me out about his powers and their many limitations. It was like talking to one of the guys working the parish festival, or a Mom working Market Days. The entire time we spoke Cardinal George exacted as much information about the situation at Queen of Peace from me as was in my powers to give. I mentioned that the Daily Southtown more than any other Chicago news medium, kept the struggle for justice at Queen of Peace in the public eye.
Cardinal spoke of the limits he has in the matter and said ' I'll make a call to the Provincial of the Sinsinawa Dominicans and make note of the concerns people have in this matter.' Instead, of dressing down one of his employees - I work for a school that is an Archdiocesan school - Cardinal George was more concerned about the injustice done to one of his Faith. The Cardinal is going to do what is in his power to do. He'll talk to the Head of the Sinsisnaw Dominicans, but that does not mean they will do as he asks. However, after my conversation with this great priest, I feel that Cardinal George's powers of persuasion may be enough. I feel like I did when I received my First Holy Communion - the Cardinal recharged my Faith in a loving and resilient Church.
Francis Cardinal George, the Thirteenth Bishop of Chicago, is my priest. Say what you want about Cardinal George and I will have an answer for you - He is a Great Shepherd!
Kathleen O'Neill, Public Relations Manager for Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center, announced the production of Gardner McKay's Sea Marks as Chicago's Shapeshifters entry into Toronto's Acting Irish International Theatre Festival.
Some of us 'touch of grey' types might remember Gardner McKay from the Adventures in Paradise TV series from the 1960's - I do anyway. McKay's Irish-theme'd play was produced as a film-drama for Public Television back in the 1970's.
The Shapeshifters Production of SeaMarks is directed by Gregory Gerhard of Chicago.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kathleen O’Neill, PR Manager
773-282-7035, ext. 13
SHAPESHIFTERS THEATRE TO PRESENT “SEA MARKS”
FOR SPRING SHOW
Shapeshifters Theatre, the resident theatre company of The Irish American Heritage Center, is proud to present its spring production, Sea Marks this spring. The play is written by Gardner McKay and will be directed by Gregory Gerhard of Chicago.
Miss O'Neill writes:
Sea Marks is a bittersweet tale of love between an Irish fisherman who becomes smitten by an English woman he has glimpsed only once. Though unschooled in letter-writing, he courts her by mail. She finds primitive poetry in the way he writes and asks him to come to Liverpool to live with her. The publishing house that employeer her prints his "poems" and for a moment he becomes a celebrity on the rise, but their different ways of life are in dreadful conflict. "
Sea Marks will be Shapeshifters’ entry into the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in Toronto in June, where they will proudly represent the IAHC.
Shapeshifters’ spring production of A Mislaid Heaven in 2005, directed by Gregory Gerhard, brought home two top awards at the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival, a yearly theatre competition among various Irish theatre groups throughout North America.
Sea Marks opens May 5 and runs through May 20 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. There will be a matinee performance on Saturday, May 20th at 3pm. Tickets are $10 for IAHC Members/Seniors and $15 for general admission. To purchase tickets, call 773-282-7035, ext. 10.
Shapeshifters, the Irish American Heritage Center's resident theatre company since 1987, continues to build on the tradition of Irish Theatre and expanding the presentation of established and new works.
The Irish American Heritage Center, located at 4626 North Knox, occupies an 86,000 square foot building on Chicago’s northwest side. The Center fosters the practice, study and celebration of Irish, Celtic and Irish-American cultural traditions. Membership in the Center is open to anyone with an interest in these traditions. The IAHC houses a 650- seat theatre, an authentic Irish pub, a Social Center, a museum, dance/music studios and meeting rooms.
Patty Nolan-Fitzgerald began her teaching career at her Alma Mater, Queen of Peace High School, an all girls Catholic prep school in Burbank, IL. Through her dedication to the young women who attended, their parents, her colleagues, and most of all the school's mission, Patti Nolan Fitzgerald became the school's Principal.
For more than three decades, Mrs. Nolan-Fitzgerald brought honor and distinction to Queen of Peace and the working-class kids who attended. Patti Nolan-Fitzgerald formed and directed the Catholic Schools Opposed to Racism, which received the blessing of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Students from all over Chicago attended workshops on how to fight racism in its many manifestations and developed programs to do just that.
Queen of Peace High School enjoyed the distinction of being in the vanguard of social justice in Chicago. Patty Nolan- Fitzgerald deflected the glow of honor from herself and allowed the light to shine on her students and the Sinsinawa Dominican Order.
Two weeks ago, the newly re-organized board of directors for Queen of Peace High School, thick with members of the Sinsinawa Dominicans, fired Patty Nolan -Fitzgerald for failing to work well with the school's newly appointed President and for doing the social justice work with her students that have so benefited the Sinsinawa Dominicans. The Kids are Angry. The Parents are angry, The Alumnae are Angry. The Board of Directors Could Care Less.
Here is a sample of the letters pouring into the Daily Southtown, the voice of the community served by Queen of Peace:
My name is Julie Egeland, and I am a senior at Queen of Peace High School, where I have spent all four years under the guidance of Ms. Patricia Nolan-Fitzgerald. During this time, Queen of Peace has helped shaped who I am. I know, as well as anyone who has ever had this woman as principal, that to lose her would be detrimental not only to the school, but also the students.
As students, we were shocked when our teachers were punished for defending someone so beloved in our community. We were confused when told we could no longer protest her removal and had to sign petitions outside of school boundaries. We were hurt when told that the decision was final; we, as well as our teachers, could do nothing about it.
Queen of Peace, however, has taught us differently. We can make a difference and our voice is significant. We are a frightened and discontented student body, but we will not rest until Ms. Nolan is reinstated. The board's decision has not made me ashamed to be part of Queen of Peace, nor could it ever.
Above all, I value the excellent education I have received there. This has made me ashamed to be part of the Dominican order. If the board cared any way in the least about the students, Patricia Nolan would always have a place at our school.
And this from a Parent:
The recent nonrenewal of the contract of Patty Nolan-Fitzgerald, principal of Queen of Peace High School, needs to be addressed. This is a woman who runs a school that prides itself on ethnic diversity. It is the birthplace of Catholic Schools Opposing Racism, an organization that came into question when the principal was told earlier in the year to cut back on such activities.
What exactly is the goal of the board of directors? Parents, teachers, alumni and students are left in the dark because of the lack of communication, lack of returned e-mails and phone calls and the abrupt cancellation of meetings in order to avoid parents.
I'm sure the reason many parents send their daughters to Queen of Peace is because it has a sterling reputation as a place of learning, growth, respect, and diversity. Are these the values the board hopes to change? I cannot understand why, in the year 2006, efforts to combat racism and efforts to open the lines of communication between people of different races and religions still are being rejected.
This is an issue far greater than the lack of a contract. It involves corporate politics, unethical practices, and unprofessional behavior from a board of directors who have no interest in the preservation of a school, community and a place where young women of all races feel they have a place and a voice.
J. Owens, Oak Lawn
Recently, Cardinal George uttered a statement marked by grace in its recognition of a personal and ecclesiastical failure in addressing the Church pedophile scandal. "You read it and you weep," said our Cardinal about a damning report concerning the handling of the scandal.
Cardinal George grew up in Chicago. His family lives in Chicago. He knows the Chicago way. Queen of Peace, though sponsored by the Sinsinawa Dominicans, is his school. Patti Nolan Fitzgerald is one of his lambs. She has been unjustly terminated.
Cardinal George has the keys to the kingdom over at Queen of Peace and an excellent hammer thanks to Bishop William Quarter. Bishop Quarter, the first Bishop of Chicago -consecrated by no less giant than Archbishop John 'Dagger John' Hughes of New York ( My favorite Catholic prelate of all time http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_2_a2.html.) Bishop William Quarter was enough of a Chicago man to steer legislation through Illinois Government in 1847 that made the baby Diocese a Corporation Sole. That is one big hammer.
The newly published Chicago Encyclopedia presents this innovative legal hammer thus:
The juridical entity known as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is the chief organizational framework for Catholic life in Cook and Lake Counties. Defined according to Illinois law as a corporation sole, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago oversees thousands of employees, lay, religious, and clerical; owns millions of dollars' worth of prime city and metropolitan property; and most important, structures the spiritual lives of millions of Chicagoans. Through their spiritual and legal authority, as well as their own personal prestige, the bishops and archbishop of Chicago have exercised enormous influence. Although higher echelons of leadership in the Chicago Catholic Church have until recently been reserved for men, women and men have in many cases labored side by side in behalf of Catholic ideals and institutions.
In short, Queen of Peace High School belongs to the Archbishop of Chicago. This is a great opportunity for Cardinal George to weep a little less. A grave injustice has been done to a good servant of the Church; a valued employee has been summarily dismissed after thirty-one years of dedication and honorable service. A vital Principal at school for young women, who worked well under President/Principal model established by the Sinsinawa Dominicans has been sand-bagged by mean-spirited and short-sighted people allowed to yield too much power.
Cardinal George, you have had a rough ride here in Chicago. You now have an opportunity to carve out a place of honor in the hardened hearts of people who love to see our Church suffer. The touch of the Holy Spirit from the rough fingers of Dagger John Hughes, who consecrated Chicago's First Bishop, might give you the opportunity to right a grave wrong.
Do the right thing. Exercise the Chicago Way - A Corporation Sole - pick up the phone and make things happen. Give the Sinsinawa Dominicans, if not the members of the Queen of Peace Board, a real piece of your mind, which should reflect the feelings of the student and parent above. Don't allow this opportunity to escape you. You deserve to weep no more.
Chicago's South Side parade is the Real DeaL and it has the World Championship Trophy to prove it! Charlie Comiskey's Chicago White Sox behind owner Jerry Reinsdorf led the parade south from 103rd & Western Ave. to 112th and Western for the 28th time.
Parade Grand Marshall is the Chicago Fire department's Bucks for Burns and the Chicago Special Olympics as Honorary Grand Marshall. A family event since the time that the Coakley family and the Wee Folks of Washtenaw and Talman Streets imitated the great parades of the 1950's when Chicago's Irish marched across 79th Street from Halsted to Ashland.
The South Side Parade enjoyed sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 50's and welcomed a crowd estimated at 350,000. 143 units including Police and Fire units from New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, and Cleveland. The Irish Government was well represented along with groups of all ethnic backgrounds in support of Immigrant Reform. Prominent among Chicago politicians was Democratic Candidate for the 3rd Congressional District John T. Kelly, son of Irish immigrants from Galway and a leader in the fight to reform American immigration laws.
One Unit that brought the crowds to their feet was NYFD Engine # 343, named for the number of New York Firefighters lost in America's greatest attack by an enemy. Lt. Billy Schillinger and Lt. Pat Concannon commanded the vehicle. The Day after the Parade, this reporter witnessed the two firefighters giving long-sleeved white Engine # 343 T-Shirts to a large group of Chicago homeless persons, while waiting in traffic on the south side. Heroes 24-7!
Photos: Top left -Daily Southtown Soxcess Flat - Top right: Chicago Police Homicide's # 1. Closer Det. William Higgins, CPD; Second Row Left- Keegan's Pub Owner County Armagh's Bernard Callaghan and Mary Doherty ; Second Row Right Chicago's Trinity Irish Dancers; Third Row Left FDNY Lt . Billy Schillinger and Chicago's Local 597 Ed Malone and Tom Kotel of the Pipefitters Third Row Left: Keegan's Pub and Cork and Kerry at 6AM Parade Started at 12PM;
Bottom Left: The Chicago White Sox World Champship Trophy in the Hands of Chicago's Finest.
John T. Kelly Will "Represent" the People of the 3rd District
This morning, my favorite Illinois newspaper The Daily Southtown endorsed John Sullivan as Democratic candidate for the the 3rd Congressional District. Do I need to call Mayflower, start packing,move and make room for more 'enlightened' emigrants from Evanston or is there a huge exodus from Hyde Park expected soon? Just asking,because the rationale for TDS's endorsement over Kelly seems to indicate that the voters of the 3rd District are not the people that the editorial board has in mind. Thus:"But the Daily Southtown endorses Sullivan because we believe he can be a more dynamic lawmaker, and because we believe he is more in touch with mainstream Democratic Party ideals — not strictly those of the Bungalow Belt that is Lipinski's base. Sullivan supports universal health care and urges withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq in a year. He also backs emergency contraception, stem-cell research and abortion rights."( Italics - my own) So our Congressional representative - SHOULD NOT - represent the views of the people HE REPRESENTS? What are 'mainstream Democratic Party Ideals?"John Sullivan lives two blocks from me. I met him. Nice Enough. Never asked for my vote. Never saw him at any of the many,many, many fund-raising benefits that are so much a part of the mindset of our Bunglow Belt. Never heard of the guy flipping pancakes at the parish. I know he is on some public school councils - his name is anyway.I have not seen ONE Sullivan lawnsign - heartbreaking. That is some endorsement. I love the Daily Southtown, but this One got hot Beverly Beverly Bean Haitian Blue up though my nasal passages. I might call one of those Progressive Democratic ambulance chasers from Evanston.
I am a
Canna
What Flower
Are You?
